To Serve An Empire
by ProfessorScrooge
Summary: After leaving the Jedi Order, Ahsoka re-enlists in the Republic army. Events change as she lives through the shift from a Republic to an Empire. AU, OOC, bit of Jedi-bashing. On hiatus while focusing on other projects
1. Chapter 1

**A/N:OK, I wrote this back in 2013 I think, been a while since I looked at it. This story runs along the idea that Ahsoka decides to join up with the republic army after leaving the Jedi. Oh, and this is rated M for a reason, just sayin'. Ahsoka may be a little OOC at times, but this is about a fall to the dark side so that's to be expected. Anyways, on with the show.**

To serve an Empire

The emptiness of space stretched out beyond the glass in front of Ahsoka, curving round the upper bridge of the Venator-class ship, _Tempest,_ she now commanded.

Her twin green lightsabers on each hip bounced against her kama as she turned to walk towards the holoprojector. What she wore had changed now that she no longer had to conform to the Jedi order's rules, and she had adapted her clothes from the clone army's surplus from decommissioned Phase One armour. She wore knee high boots of interlocking white plates, a burgundy stripe denoting her unit affiliation. Her burgundy kama were more close to tassets, acting as thigh armour around the short skirt she wore, which allowed for great freedom of movement. Above her standard issue belt, her midriff bared her orange skin up to the top of the four white plates that made up her chest piece, adorned in the same wine colour were mirrored designs from her face markings, and the four circles above her heart which denoted her rank as general. A similarly striped spaulder protected her right shoulder, while her left was protected with the traditional pauldron, that looked similar to her kama. She wore the same kind of white and burgundy design on her vambraces, which interlocked onto black gloves on each hand. Her right vambrace had a number of buttons that linked in to her helmet, which was clasped under her right arm. Of all the armour she had scavenged, what once was a clone commando helm was the least recognisable, having been completely reshaped to fit over her montrals and leave her lekku open. The helm contained several useful features such as her communicator, night vision, inbuilt macrobinoculars, and an air filter. The bar-like visor over her eyes lit up blue when she wished to zoom in on features, highlighting the wine-coloured swirls decorating the helm. From her belt hung a blaster pistol, a small knife, and a few pouches of various supplies. In short she looked every inch the general she was, but little like the Jedi padawan that had left the order all those weeks ago.

Her boots clacked soundly on the metal deck as she walked towards the projector, nodding in respect to commander Zain as she did. Zain, the clone assigned to her to help command the 714th Legion of the Republic, was bedecked in phase II armour with colours similar to her own, and a pair of macrobinoculars on his helm. He was never seen without his twin pistols by his side and his rifle on his back. The man had seemed surprised when they originally met on Coruscant, expecting the padawan of the "Hero with no Fear" to be older no doubt. She had earned the man's respect, as well as that of the rest of the legion, on Biitu with a battle against an army of 'junk droids,' and again in their latest assignment on Alderaan.

Both Ahsoka and Zain stood before the holoprojector and placed their helms on the rim, before Ahsoka leaned forward and opened the pending communication line from the Supreme Chancellor, the blue image of said man immediately springing up in front of them.

"Supreme Chancellor, the mess on Alderaan is cleaned up, and the 714th is ready to redeploy." She bowed her head slightly as she said the words, she had felt a personal debt to Palpatine nearly two months ago as he gave her the position of General when she requested to re-join the army, which was technically a promotion from her old rank.

"Good work General Tano, you have certainly done a great deal to prove correct your appointment to the Senate," she smiled slightly at that, since the Senate had been in outrage that the Supreme Chancellor had appointed a 'supposed terrorist' as a general, but she had so far proved her critics wrong. "Now, are you aware of the situation on Zygerria?" Ahsoka's smile switched to a scowl at the name.

"I was on the planet a few months ago: the people there have reinstated laws on legalising slavery, and formed ties to the Separatists."

"That they have," the Chancellor nodded grimly; "they have expanded their efforts of enslavement in neutral systems, and are using these slaves in mines and such to acquire raw materials. These resources are being used to power the Separatist war effort."

"So I'm guessing we take out the slave trade, and cut off their supply chain?" Ahsoka said when he paused.

"That would involve taking the whole planet wouldn't it?" Zain's rough voice interjected.

"You are correct commander. I originally intended this mission to be for the 501st, but they are occupied on the other side of the Outer Rim. Anakin however recommended you for the mission, Ahsoka," Ahsoka almost missed the more casual way he talked about the pair of them in the small surge of emotion she felt over hearing Anakin's name. The Jedi knight had been a major part of her life for the past few years as she served as his padawan, and his friend. Their closeness had made it hard when she decided to leave the order two months ago, but she knew he understood her exactly on how she felt about how the order operated. The Jedi were flawed, even one of their own planting a bomb in the temple hadn't made them realise that. The Jedi needed to choose between being warriors and generals, or peacekeepers. For Ahsoka's personal choice, she chose to be what she already was. She had spent her teenage years fighting this war, and she wasn't going to stop now as she neared her eighteenth birthday.

Thinking of Anakin however stirred up emotions within her, ones the Jedi technically forbade. Both of them had certainly grown 'attached' to one another, despite what the rules were. Neither she or Anakin had ever been conventional Jedi, in fact she had often thought in a bed late at night that she would never have made it as a Jedi outside a time of war, not with all Yoda's warnings of recklessness, attachment, anger…

Ahsoka was so caught up in her own thoughts that it took a touch on the arm from Zain to bring her out of thinking, at which she looked apologetically at Palpatine, realising she had probably missed something he said.

"My apologies Chancellor, just thinking that were this not so long ago I would be with the 501st right now," Palpatine chuckled at that.

"I daresay they miss you as well Ahsoka, there was more than one request that you be assigned to the 501st when you enlisted," he paused, and Ahsoka felt as though he stared into her soul as he gazed upon her. The man was known for his ability to see right into any situation and divine the truth. "I was just saying that the Jedi are sending Master Mundi to assist you in the assault." Ahsoka tried to restrain the frown that threatened to spread over her features. While extra troops would definitely be helpful in taking the planet, she had no wish to fight with a Jedi, with doubtlessly endless advice and admonishment that came with one, especially not one of the masters on the council who decided her guilt before she was even tried. Added to the way Palpatine said "The Jedi are sending" made it sound like they had insisted on sending Mundi, she didn't even want to think about why they might choose to do so. The Council always seemed to have ulterior motives in recent years.

"How many troops is he bringing with him Chancellor?" at the end of the day she was a warrior, and she had a war to fight: better to start thinking up battle strategy rather than waste time trying to divine the Jedi's intentions.

"I am not certain of exact number, but he is bringing two Venator-class ships from the 4th Sector army that he is in command of. Beyond that all I can tell you is that he shall be meeting you at your current location in a matter of hours." That at least gave Ahsoka a few hours to create some kind of battle stratagem for taking Zygerria.

"Well, I suppose we could use the reinforcements."

"I believe in the past you have taken planets with less. However I am afraid I must leave, there is a delegation of senators waiting to tell me what I should be doing to end this war."

"Try showing them the various systems that owe the Republic their freedom," Ahsoka couldn't resist the quip, and was grateful to see a smile on Palpatine's face rather than something that showed she had overstepped the bounds of social hierarchy. Zain too was smirking; she knew he held great pride in the work he and his brothers had achieved in this war.

"I may just try that, until the next time Ahsoka." The blue hologram faded from existence. Ahsoka switched off the projector, and then turned to face the uniformed clones on the bridge. Pointing to one of them she issued her orders:

"Captain, I need any and all information the Republic holds on Zygerria and the Zygerrians. Primarily information on the cities, geography and recent dealings with the Separatists," her finger turned on another clone "you, plot a hyperspace route to Zygerria for three venator-class cruisers," again her finger moved to another clone, "you, go tell the engineers downstairs to prep all ships for battle. Someone call me when General Mundi comes out of hyperspace." Her orders were followed by a chorus of salutes and "Yes Ma'am"s, the men under her command were used to the fact she didn't suffer fools lightly, a trait she picked up from her old master. Although while she did try not to be unnecessarily harsh, at times she could get annoyed when someone did something improperly.

She had picked up her helmet and was striding off to her quarters when Zain spoke up behind her.

"General?" his voice was firm, but he sounded confused. She spun on her heel to face the man, and smiled.

"How many times Zain; call me Ahsoka. You're making me feel old." He smiled at that, he outright refused to address her by her first name. He claimed it was because it was improper, though she had a feeling it was just because Ahsoka found it a bit strange to be referred to as a General, and he wanted her to get used to the term. Their easy camaraderie often reminded her of late nights in a hangar with the men of the 501st, whilst Anakin was busy making up tactics or the like.

"I was just wondering why having General Mundi would be a bad thing?" his tone was almost apologetic, but Ahsoka was too busy silently cursing herself to notice much beyond the question itself. She sighed, bracing herself for the conversation.

"Am I that easy to read?"

"You're not particularly good at hiding your emotions."

"Yeah….I dislike the Jedi order. Quite a bit."

"But you were a Jedi?"

"Yes, so I saw all the flaws and problems up close. In a lot of ways they're corrupt and hypocritical. Don't get me wrong, for this war; their fighting skills have helped the Republic a lot. But their own philosophies are blind and…" Ahsoka sagged. When Barriss had been jailed and prepared for her trial, she had spent several sleepless nights thinking about the order. All its flaws, and failings, and what they were doing with the galaxy. All her thoughts had led to her decision to leave the Jedi, and although she still fought with the force and wielded the new green lightsabers she had constructed, she definitely did not consider herself a Jedi anymore.

"Sounds like a lot of issues with an order you used to belong to."

"An order I left. Besides, it's not like I had any choice…." She trailed off, then turned and started walking again. "You don't want to listen to a bitter woman rant about personal grievances. Go get some rest Zain, in a few hours it's back to the battlefield for the lot of us."

The thick doors to the bridge opened for her, and she strode down the corridor to her room, pressing a button on her vambrace to open it.

The room was fairly large by military standards, but as Spartan as could be expected: a metal framed bed, with drawers underneath, a chair, a holoprojector a bit smaller than the one on the bridge, and a fairly open space in the middle for her to practise form or meditate, though she rarely chose to do the latter except when thinking.

She swiftly grabbed her datapad off the chair where she had left it, and browsed the files the captain had sent her on Zygerria. She selected a file on the Capital City, and sent it over to the projector. A blue image of a city she had hoped never to see again appeared, with scrolling information in galactic basic in mid-air in relation to the city.

She sighed as she gazed over the hologram. The capital would be the best place to attack first, giving them control over all the Zygerrian files on themselves, and their slaving exploits. However, it was a heavily fortified location, doubtless aided by Separatist forces since her last visit, as the scrolling text informed her.

The city was based on and around a mountain, with low level residential housing at the bottom, and pathways and housing being built into the cliff in tiers as they went upwards, leading up to a completely flat top where most of the commercial side of Zygerria was based, and the Citadel itself. The city area at the base of the mountain, the edge of the flat top, and the Citadel were surrounded with thick walls, with turret weaponry emplacements at regular intervals. Landing at this city without permission was a death sentence, as was storming it on foot. And even if they made it in, the place was a veritable fortress with tunnels built into the mountain, and a citadel to retreat to. A treeline near the edge of the lower city was promising, but it was likely filled with proximity mines and detectors. A surprise attack would have some value, but beyond that it was likely they would have to fight from street to street right up the mountain.

Ahsoka sighed, grabbed the chair, and sat before the hologram immersing herself in possible strategy.

#########################################################################################

Ki Adi Mundi dropped out of hyperspace five hours after Ahsoka had entered her cabin, and she was not particularly looking forward to greeting the Jedi Master as she slowly walked towards the bridge. As the blast doors opened and she stepped in range of the holoprojector, she saw the holographic projections of Mundi and commander Bacara, as well as Zain turn their heads towards her. Mundi visibly blinked when he saw her, clearly not expecting her so obviously military appearance.

"Gentlemen," she clipped as she placed her helmet on the edge of the projector, then loading up the schematic of the city from her cabin. "This is our primary objective, Zygeron, the capital city. It's heavily fortified as you can see, as well as armed with anti-air capabilities which can just as easily be turned on ground troops." She spun the map to zoom in on one of the towers on the lower level by the spaceport. "This is the only way in short of the front gate, climbing over the walls or dropping in. My plan is to put a number of men on public transports and private freighters from different planets, fly them in armed with explosives, and take out the weapon emplacements in the city. This will leave the place open to a full ground assault, during which I and a contingent of clones will air-drop above the Citadel, and try to take out the leaders while they are still scrambling for control, then hold the Citadel, while the men under General Mundi's command take the city starting from the lower Spaceport and working their way up street to street. Once we have full control of the Citadel, and your forces are keeping the armies occupied, we can fly in the remaining troops to the top of the mountain and work our way downwards, keeping the Zygerrians fighting a battle on two fronts, above and below. By the morning after we start we should have the city under complete control, and with minimum loss of civilian life." The plan had taken her a number of hours, and while granted did lean slightly on the reckless side, her plans did tend to, and she was still alive so far. Mundi however, was frowning, and Ahsoka prepared for doubtless Jedi rhetoric about recklessness.

"It would seem your have inherited your master's recklessness, " ' _called it'_ Ahsoka thought silently. She didn't even bother to correct the man on calling Anakin her Master, considering she wasn't a Jedi anymore. "This hinges on the troopers being able to effectively take out the turrets, and that they'll even be able to get in and move around freely without being recognised is a gamble. If they are caught, we lose all element of surprise."

"It seems a sound plan to me," Zain was leaning with both hands on the projector, "the Zygerrians are not expecting an attack, they won't be actively searching every transport and freighter. The men can wear helmets or other things to cover their faces, and blend in with the varied people of the city."

"What about sending the men through this forest?" Mundi relocated the focus of the map to the forest by the base of the city.

"If we do that, not only will the guards at the gate be highly suspicious of who they are and how they arrived, but I am fairly certain there will be sensors and traps in the forested area." Ahsoka's reply was clipped and simple as she tried letting the change of topic slide without mentioning how Mundi hadn't disagreed.

"I'm not talking about sending your small contingent to knock out the turrets, I mean sending the full army for the ground assault. It would allow us a great deal of surprise to get that close to the city undetected." Ahsoka blinked and wondered if he'd heard what she said.

"Not only would the men get there tired over the distance they would have to travel from to get there secretly, but I still believe a people as intelligent as the Zygerrians will have laid traps and sensors in the forest. They'll know we're coming a mile off."

"Do you have any specific intel that states there are sensors in the forest?"

"No, but-,"

"Then you cannot be certain can you? All the same it would admittedly be a good idea to tread carefully, but I do not believe they will have bothered to spend the resources to trap the forest," Ahsoka was all but ready to get out her lightsabers and attack the Jedi at his clear dismissal of her thoughts, even though he barely outranked her as a Senior Jedi General in charge of the fourth of the twenty sector armies. The man continued on without sparing her a glance, squaring the map back off to its full size, "I believe that while the ground forces wait to deploy in the forest, we can send in bombers to take out the turret emplacements and damage the walls enough for the ground forces to enter the city and work their way up, led by you Tano, while I and my troops airdrop into the citadel and arrest those there. We then hold the building, and fly the prisoners out of there into custody." Ahsoka outright stared at the man as he talked, when or how did he ever get made a Senior General? Any skill he may have had on the battlefield was nothing next to bad knowledge of tactics.

"Any attempt at bombing won't work, I already thought of that and ruled it out. If the men fly at a speed at which they can avoid the turrets successfully, they stand a fair chance of not only missing the targets, but hitting civilians as well. If they move slowly enough to get an accurate shot, they're unlikely to make it through the barrage alive."

"General Tano is right sir; our pilots aren't capable of flying that fast and being accurate enough to avoid civvies casualties." Zain stood up for her again, looking up at the Jedi Master.

"We shall have the element of surprise, the Zygerrians will not be ready to attack the bombers as they deploy unless they are already alerted to our presence, so they will be able to go slow enough to get accurate shots. What is important is that we are able to get into the city."

"What is important is taking the city, with minimum casualties of our own men and of civilians. What you're suggesting if it goes the slightest bit wrong has a high chance of killing civilians and our own pilots, not to mention the ground troops if the forest is trapped." She could hardly believe that he would suggest this after calling her own plan reckless. In theory if he was right it would be effective, but she strongly doubted he was, the clones made good pilots, but they weren't _that_ good.

"The main objective is to breach the citadel and airlift the leaders out of the city." Why did he return to that point? The Chancellor's orders were to take out the Zygerrian slave trade in its entirety, the city was just the start. She got the feeling that this was the reason for the Jedi council sending Mundi.

"Taking out the leaders won't stop the slavers, they'll just turn to the lieutenants and each other for command, and they'll become even more violent and dangerous." Mundi paused staring at her, while the two clone commanders glanced between them.

"Those are the orders I'm giving padawan, and this plan will be followed. You will airdrop far out in the forest, and walk to the city, whereupon you will wait for the bombing then commence your attack." His voice was stern like a man chiding a child for being silly, and the obvious way in which he pulled rank really grated on her nerves as she grit her teeth. Not only would his plan get them all killed most likely, but he was insulting her in front of her men who were watching with open mouths from where they stood on the bridge. The worst thing was she couldn't do a kriffing thing. She took the one thing she could get.

"I. Am. Not. A. Padawan." She outright growled through her teeth, "you may address me as General, or General Tano, with all due respect, _sir._ "

Mundi didn't say a word as his hologram disappeared. She however kicked the base of the holoprojector in anger and muttered a few curses in Huttesse that she had picked up from Anakin, and would doubtless have raised an eyebrow or two had anyone understood her. She let the anger course through her system for another satisfying moment, before stemming it inside, it wouldn't do for her men to see her acting like a petulant teenager. She straightened her back and looked over at the officers who were still gaping slightly.

"Get back to work and prepare for a hyperspace jump to the Zygerrian system," she spoke quietly and calmly, but her officers all heard her, finding other places to send their glances and things to be done. She slowly grabbed her helmet off the projector and turned the machine off. She could feel Zain hovering, about to speak.

"I think I might understand why you're not so keen on Jedi right now," he said slowly, saying such things could be regarded by some as insubordination. Certainly not with Ahsoka however.

"The Jedi are many things, sometimes they even make decent warriors, but they are generally not tacticians," the woman let out a sigh, nearly eighteen standard years and she was still being treated like a child by, essentially, her peer, the padawan comment had got to her a bit. "Thanks by the way, you didn't have to stand up for me like that."

"Don't know what you mean General." The corners of Ahsoka's mouth twitched as he called her General. She looked away in thought for a moment about what to do next; obviously she couldn't disobey Mundi's orders, suicidal as they were. However he hadn't _specifically_ forbidden her to carry out her own ideas as a backup plan. She pulled Zain over by his arm and started walking out of the room.

"Commander, how many of the 327th Star Corps did we absorb after their defeat on Felucia?" she spoke quietly and formally, signifying to Zain that it was important. After a recent skirmish with pirates, the battalion that was usually part of the legion controlled by Commander Bly and Aayla Secura had been grafted into her own ranks, since the transport purposes of sending the few dozen men back to their own legion was not worth it, and the 327th was essentially no more.

"Captain Deviss and around twenty of his best men are uninjured, and we have about twelve in the med ward." Deviss was an old friend of Zain she knew, they had both trained in the same group on Kamino.

"They haven't officially been documented into being part of the 714th yet have they?"

"No Ma'am," she could almost see the gears turning in Zain's head as they walked towards the extra barracks area where the remainder of the 327th were located.

"And do we still have any of the pirate ships in the hangar that they escaped in?"

"Two in working order, though I don't know if the hyperdrives are functional."

"If they have hyperdrives, then we can get them working."

They reached the door to the barracks, and she pressed the button to enter the room, numerous clone troopers in various states of wearing their red-striped armour stood to attention at her entry. She looked around to find the man who had been sitting on a chair polishing a rifle when they walked in.

"At ease men," she concentrated on Deviss, taking in the 'D' in Galactic Basic on his bald head above his left ear, matching the 'Z' on Zain's head. Brothers in arms indeed. "Deviss, how would you and your men fancy a stealth trip to take out a bunch of turrets in a fortified city that will likely be crawling with guards and droids?" She was known for being straight and to the point for good reason.

The man in front of her smiled, and various sounds of appreciation came from around the room. "I was hoping you'd give us a chance to get back in the fight Ma'am. Where and when will be going General?" She liked Deviss already.

"Zygerria and as soon as possible."

"Mission brief?" She handed him the data-chip from the holoprojector.

"That will give you schematics of the city Zygeron. You're going to need to take those pirate ships you brought in and disguise yourselves, helmets, bandanas, anything, just make sure you're unrecognisable as clones. You'll need to be taking explosives with you: thermal dets, RX-4, anything you can fit on your person. When you're in the city I'm going to need you to wait for my call, and then blow all the turret locations on that schematic."

The man stood straight and saluted, before turning to his men. "You heard the General, get your weapons and head down to the hangar. We'll leave in thirty."

"Thank you Captain, "Ahsoka said, nodding to him with sincere gratitude, all their lives may rest upon him and his men. She quickly strode back through the open door and turned back towards the bridge, while men thundered out behind her towards the hangar.

"You know," Zain commented from by her side, "this could be regarded as insubordination or disobeying orders."

"Only if it goes wrong, and if it does, I don't think we'll be alive to face problems over it. Besides, I am simply executing a contingency plan I forgot to mention to General Mundi." She looked at the man next to her and his frown; she stopped walking and looked at him. "Hey, if this does go south, you know I'll take full responsibility."

"Hey, let's focus on getting out of this alive shall we?" his reply was light hearted, and they both laughed as they tried to shore up the dread feeling they had over whether or not they actually would survive.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Chapter deux, onto the invasion. And sorry if I don't write the action scenes very well. Second and last chapter I've written, so yeah, cuts off I know  
**

Chapter Two

As much as the lush forest was good cover to not be seen, it was damned difficult to traverse. Endless knobbly roots, gullies and crevices had made going difficult since the 714th had dropped in seven hours earlier, and Ahsoka's men were certainly feeling every klick that they travelled. And while Ahsoka's helmet filtered out the particulates in the air, it certainly didn't do much to guard against the abominable heat.

Through the dense foliage the mountain city of Zygeron loomed in the sky. Ahsoka however still couldn't shake the feeling something was about to happen, everything felt wrong.

"How long do you think it will take to reach the edge of the forest General?" Ahsoka turned to look at Zain through her visor. He was busy pulling his boot out of a shrub while asking the question.

"I think about twenty minutes. But something doesn't feel right to me, I'm not sure we're going to get there unscathed," Ahsoka frowned beneath her helmet. Usually when she felt some kind of premonition, it was wise to listen to it. Her hand reached over to her vambrace, opening her communicator. "All units, keep weapons hot. I got a bad feeling about this." Troopers around her pulled out their various different blasters, though most of the people up front with her bore the regular shock troop rifle. Ahsoka herself pulled out her twin lightsabers, very much aware of the fact she was at the front of her forces. Anakin taught her that a good general always led from the front line.

As they advanced through the dense forest at little more than walking pace, Ahsoka concentrated highly on her hollow montrals and the local echo-location that they allowed her. She was concentrating so much she almost missed the metallic clang her boot made when she stepped over a root. Almost.

She flipped backwards, igniting her lightsabers as she landed back on her feet, her men pointing guns at the space beyond the tree. Ahsoka's worst fears were confirmed as dust sifted from the forest floor, and a metal disk rose from the earth revealing a storage unit of twelve super-battle droids, which were already waking from sleep mode.

"Stang it," Ahsoka muttered as she wasted no time in dashing forwards to plunge her twin sabres into the chests of two waiting droids, melting the metal and destroying vital systems. Her sabers flipped easily in her grasp as she moved right to slash another droid in half around its leg joints, but the others were already removing themselves from the pillar of a charging station and turning on her group.

A droid that reared up in front of her lost its protruding arm with one downwards slash, while she followed with her other saber to slice the body upwards, cleaving the machine in two. Her legs flipped her backwards in a leap as her senses notified her of the droid that had positioned itself behind her. Both her sabers were buried in the droid's body as she landed, pulling them out with a flourish to face the other droids that were being shot by her troopers.

Ahsoka deflected a blaster bolt back to its owner, and the last of the twelve droids fell, however the damage was done. All through the trees she could see the storage units rising and various droids being deployed, and doubtless the alarm had been raised in Zygeron, which meant the defences would have been activated. The entire invasion plan was a bust, just as she had predicted. Red and blue blaster bolts were already flying all around as the forest turned into a battleground. She deflected a bolt aimed at her chest into a tree and started issuing orders through her helmet communicator.

"All units, full retreat, mission is compromised, I repeat, mission is compromised. Someone try to raise the Tempest and warn them," she was cut off as she felt the warning in the force to leap out of the way as a rocket blast exploded behind her, rolling as she came up in the dirt. Oh she _hated_ rocket launchers; this day really wasn't going well.

"Kriffing hell," Zain's quiet voice and the lack of the sound of his twin pistols firing made her turn to look at him. Her gaze joined his as he stared upwards, and her heart stopped as she saw the Republic Y-wing bombers gliding low overhead. They were flying right to their death.

Ahsoka's head hung as the battle raged on around her; she had failed in her command, she had let this happen. She should have ignored Mundi's orders and gone ahead with her plan, damned the consequences.

"General?" Zain broke her out of her self-loathing, and she remembered that there were still men fighting and dying around her. She had a duty to them.

"All units: fall back as best you can, head back the way we came. Stick to your groups and stay in formation. Use your droid poppers and run."

Men around her followed her orders, sticking together and throwing the droid poppers at the front groups of clankers, disabling them. Ahsoka set about deflecting blaster bolts for all the troopers around her as they beat a hasty retreat.

Explosions rocked the air as bombers fell from the sky in the near distance.

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The 714th rested and waited in a canyon several klicks from Zygeron, exhausted after retreating while fighting off seemingly endless scores of droids. The night sky glittered overhead through the dense forest foliage.

Ahsoka stood and surveyed the men sprawled in and around the canyon, the few medics they had tending to the wounded. What made her feel sick was the number of people there, she really didn't want to ask the question she had to now they had secured the position.

"Zain?" her commander was immediately by her side, as per usual.

"Yes General?"

"What were our total losses for today?"

"Well, from what we can gather, at least a third of the ground troops we came down here with. And of course we can be fairly certain that we also lost several bomber teams, but we can't know the specifics on anything beyond our own units since they started jamming long-range communication." The knowledge of losing so many of her troops really hit Ahsoka; these were men who had trusted her to lead them into the city.

"What about the city? Was any progress made?"

"Well the three ARF troopers we sent arrived at the edge of the forest under an hour ago, and from what they can see the city defences are fully intact."

"Any good news at all?"

"Well, we did get out of that with the majority of our troops alive and in fighting condition. Getting away from a trap set for people like us with so many of our forces intact is no small feat General."

Ahsoka sighed inside her helm, the man was right, but she couldn't help but think of all the men who weren't here right now rather than those that were. She was about to ask about the injured when her communicator started beeping in her ear, she pressed a button and opened the line.

"General Tano speaking," she made sure to keep her voice strong, appearance meant a lot.

"This is ARF unit 1, there's activity outside the main gate at Zygeron. Sending footage to your holoprojector now." Ahsoka kept the line open and jogged to where the portable holoprojector had been set up. It still amazed her that the table-like machine could fit on one clone's back. As they reached it, Zain leaned over and pressed a button, displaying a 2D image of what was recognisably the front gate, captured with macrobinoculars. A group of battle droids overseen by a darkly clad person were escorting people out of the gate.

"Try and zoom in," her command was spoken into thin air and readily obeyed, her breath stopped as she saw the closer image. Overseen by the commander who looked like a Chiss female, though it was difficult to tell from this distance, the battle droids were escorting an even two dozen men and women in shackles out of the city, and lining them up against the wall.

Before Ahsoka could say anything, beeping filled the air as every trooper's communicator received a pending communication, including her own. Upon opening the line Ahsoka listened to the female voice that sounded in her ear:

"This is General Sev'rance Tann, of the army of the Confederacy of Independent Systems."

"Stang," muttered Zain. He scrambled to open a line to their own soldiers, "all units, this is being broadcast on all frequencies, do _not_ reply or they'll know where we are." The woman continued speaking over Zain as he barked the order:

"I know you can hear me you Republic dogs, though perhaps you may not be able to see me. I have here twenty-four of the slaves you doubtless came here to liberate. Now, unless you contact me with your surrender within the next minute, I will execute these slaves. And then I shall do so again in six hours, and again, and again until you surrender. You have one minute General Tano, I shall be waiting." As Tann's speech ended, Ahsoka could feel every eye and helmet around the trench focused in her direction. Every man under her command had heard the ultimatum, and she felt every eye boring its way into the back of her skull. Her hands leant down on the projector as she stared at the group of mixed race that had their backs against the city wall, her knuckles clenched on the edge of the projector being the only indication of her anger that was simmering inside.

"General?" Zain sounded almost wary, but Ahsoka didn't reply to the question. "General, if we surrender they will most likely kill all of us, and then torture yourself for information on the Jedi and the Republic, followed by your ransoming or execution."

"I know," she replied softly, her calm tone the opposite of her inside emotions as she stayed still, fixated upon the slaves.

"General, we might be able to get a shot off-"the tentative voice of the ARF trooper sounded over the line she still held open, but she cut him off before he could complete the offer.

"No trooper, that would give away your position. We have no choice."

Ahsoka barely registered the man closing the comms connection as the seconds ticked down in her head. As second number sixty passed the droids fired in unison, the slaves slumping to the ground. Ahsoka's head hung down breaking her fixation on the prisoners' limp forms.

"Very well, be cowards then. I shall speak to you again in six hours." The woman gave her parting promise, and the open communication line ended.

Ahsoka stayed very still for almost a minute, unable to get the image of the slaves slumping back against the wall as their lives ended. She may have been fighting this war for a bit over three years now, but it never got any easier. Acutely aware of the eyes on her, she straightened, and turned to Zain.

"Commander, please tell the men they may rest until morning, they have all more than earned a night of sleep. We shall move out to whatever we decide to do in the morning." The man looked at her for a moment before formally saluting.

"Yes ma'am." She nodded to him, and spun on her heel, doubting that her troops would get that much rest that night. Her head inclined to look up at what she could see of the night sky above, she needed to get out of the trench, the dirt walls were slightly suffocating. With a brush of her mind's eye, the force gathered around her legs, and she leapt up out of the depression in the landscape. Her body flexed forward and she rolled out of the jump, coming to rest before a fairly large tree. Determinedly she grasped the knobbly bark of the tree, applying muscle memory long forgotten from back when she was a child on Shili, climbing trees to gain some solitude. Even at three she hadn't exactly been the most normal togruta among her tribe.

Pulling herself up the branches with the strong muscles she had gained over her years fighting this war. It always used to amuse the clones of the 501st slightly when she would join them in the small gym their Venator was equipped with, following Anakin's comment of "Find your limits, and push yourself to them. Then you'll know what you can and can't do." She had even sparred occasionally with the clones, though it was rarely a challenge below a five-to-one fight. Her sleekly toned limbs helped her now as she hauled herself up to the high branches, and settled herself among them.

The night's sky stretched out above her head, and she looked up to where she knew three Republic cruisers were hanging in orbit, blocked off from communication. Closest range her comms could reach was probably the city, though she didn't exactly have any Republic friends over there.

Or did she...

"Deviss," she muttered, remembering the backup plan she had implemented with the captain. Her orange fingers were hesitant as she turned on her communicator. "Captain Deviss, do you copy?" White noise was her only reply, her heart sinking as she repeated the words. "Captain Deviss, do you copy?" Silence once more pervaded the air before a tired voice broke it.

"This is Captain Deviss. Good to hear your voice general, we were beginning to get worried."

Ahsoka let a smile of elation cross her features as she looked to the stars once more as they shined down on her.

 **A/N: This is as far as I ever got with this one. Of all my old stories, this is perhaps the one I think about coming back to the most, I have a lot of ideas for the Star Wars universe. Speaking of which, KotOR fic should be up soon, 11 chapters or so I think.**


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: Okay, first chapter written for this in…maybe a year or more? I honestly don't know, but the old ideas returned when I posted the other chaps.**

 **Disclaimer: I OWN NOTHING, property of respective owners etc.**

Chapter 3

The trek back through the forests had been happily uneventful. Most of the droid silos and traps had been emptied and the droids pulled back to the city, and the remaining ones had been avoidable since they were keeping an eye out for them.

Ahsoka looked up into the bright skies before concentrating back on the gate ahead of them. Her men were encamped in the treeline, keeping back to varying degrees as they waited. The CIS general had executed another group nearing six hours ago, so she should any moment…

Ahsoka's breathing stopped for a moment as the gate slid up and a battalion of droids marched out a group of shackled slaves, most of them twi'lek.

"Sharpshooters at the ready, when I give the order I want as many taken down without harming the slaves. Forward units, as soon as shots are fired, break for the city. Comms, as soon as the jammer signal is down, you raise the Tempest immediately and get us our reinforcements," a chorus of 'Yes General's followed her orders. "Captain Deviss, are you ready?"

"Yes general," came the reply, "we're holed up near the gate, we'll be there to welcome you in." Deviss and his men had been the lynchpin for the plan, placing explosives at the major turret emplacements on the walls, and in the communications centre on the top levels. He and his men were currently waiting to provide covering fire and stop droid reinforcements to allow the main force into the city.

"Ready up, and on my mark," Ahsoka slowed her breathing, moving into a calm mind-set that battle allowed her. This was what she did. "Three," all around her she could see clones hefting and readying large rifles, and training them on the gates. "Two," Ahsoka's eyes narrowed as she noted the hooded figure of General Tann. "One, mark."

A flurry of blue blaster bolts flew out of the treeline, and Ahsoka swiftly followed them as they seemed to move in slow motion. Her trained eyes watched them pick off maybe a dozen or more cream-painted tinnies, but the woman seemed to twitch before jumping out of the way, moments before they hit.

As Ahsoka ran forwards from the treeline, her lightsabers already in hand and ignited, she was followed by the bulk of her forces bellowing war cries as blue light lit up the air all around. Her gaze wandered up to the turrets on either side of the gate, and she allowed herself a smile as the sound of explosions ripped through the air as they, and the other emplacements in the city, were destroyed.

Her smile turned into a grimace as the woman she was swiftly approaching threw off her dark cloak, revealing herself fully. She was indeed a Chiss, but she had previously missed the cybernetics on one side of her face, and her entirely robotic arm. Her soured mood though, was more to do with the yellow lightsaber blade she had lit and was deflecting fire with.

"General Tano," the woman greeted in a mocking tone as she ran forwards, "so nice of you to come to me. Saves me having to track you down to kill you, you Jedi whelp!"

The togruta said nothing in return, only slashing forwards with her right saber as she moved within range, of course being blocked by her counterpart's own blade. Tann flicked down to the side to parry her second weapon attack as well, with a recognisable flourish.

Makashi.

Dooku.

Another of his damn 'Dark Jedi,' they were a pain to deal with. Still, not as bad as Ventress. Or Grievous.

She launched into the Chiss, lashing out with blows of force strengthened by her determination, as taught by the master of Djem So himself: Anakin Skywalker, as dubbed by Dooku. It forced her backwards, the blue skinned woman defending against strong hit after fast slash towards the gates. Every counter and twist allowed her to map her moves, see her preferences, and weaknesses. She favoured her right, being her only organic arm, and had a slight hitch in her shoulder.

When the Chiss moved to push her away with the force, Ahsoka allowed it, jumping with it in a backflip to land squarely on her feet not far off.

"You are pitiful," Tann spat out, though she could glean that the woman was slightly out of breath. "You are free from your order, but still constrain yourself to its sensibilities. Witness the power of the Dark Side!"

Her declaration made, Tann ran at her with a roar, blade upraised. Ahsoka parried her first blow off to the side with one saber while attacking with the other, lending strength to her strike with the force. The Chiss barely backed up in time as she advanced, her form changed to the more powerful attacks of Juyo.

Ahsoka's anger and frustration over the events of the previous few days welled up and she allowed it to push her on, give her actions strength. Tann's eyes widened at the ferocity she displayed, and in her moment of confusion, Ahsoka saw her chance. Her right hand slipped down and with a twist of the force with her mind, she launched a blast of a concussive wave at her opponent directly at her weak point.

Tann went flying backwards, hitting the city wall a full foot off of the ground with a painful crack of sound. Ahsoka allowed a bit of satisfaction at defeating the woman as she crumpled to the ground, her lightsaber rolling away. It felt good to let loose a bit of frustration.

"You talk too much," she stated as she delivered a swift kick to her black-haired head, knocking the groaning woman out. Honestly, what was it with dark-side users and pontificating?

Her duel over, she looked up to examine her surroundings for the first time in a while. The droids were all scrap, and her men were gathered in and around the gateway, advancing forwards into the city with weapons hot. The slaves that had been due to be executed were huddled in a corner on the outside of the wall, away from the soldiers. Zain was to be spotted close by, wielding his rifle and aiming into the city.

"Zain!" she yelled as she grew closer, causing his helmet to turn and face her, "did we manage to contact the Tempest?"

"Yes general, reinforcements should be arriving in a few moments at the citadel led by general Mundi," he answered quickly.

"Right," she replied, not needing to make her thoughts on the man known. Hopefully he would just follow her plan of working down so the two forces met in the middle. "I want Tann restrained and gagged; we're taking her with us. Be careful with her, she's a force user." He nodded before ordering a couple of clones to the job. "Where do we stand now?"

"Gate's open and we're working through into the city, little bit of resistance up ahead from a brothel. They're using children as human shields," Zain replied, disgust colouring his tone near the end. Ahsoka narrowed her eyes at the statement.

"Children? What would children be doing in a brothel…" she trailed off as she realised why Zain was quite so disgusted. For Ahsoka, it just drove her hatred of the Zygerrians up another notch, and she kept her lightsabers drawn as she stalked into Zygeron.

###################################################################################################

"What is going on here?" Ahsoka demanded as she strode over towards a gaggle of clones and two others. She had withdrawn from the battle that was nearly won as Zain had told her Mundi was taking his forces and leaving the campaign. And her hostage.

"Sev'rance Tann is being remanded into my custody, and I am withdrawing my troops. I'm sure you can handle the rest, although I will be sure to mention in my report that you disobeyed my orders," Mundi replied in that calm tone of his, and Ahsoka eyed the captive Chiss who was now awake and ungagged being dragged towards a dropship.

Ahsoka felt her frustrations of a long day of fighting welling up-especially as she and her troops had to do all the work fighting up to the citadel as Mundi's forces stayed entrenched there, and once she got there and attempted to mop up the many pockets of resistance, he was leaving and carting off her prisoner. Gears in her mind moved around as she put together the reasoning for Mundi's desire to airlift the leaders out back when they were planning. He, or perhaps more accurately the Jedi Council, wanted Tann. She was the reason for this kriffing mess.

Frankly, she had had quite enough.

He never saw the punch coming, and her gauntlet made a satisfying crack against his face. He fell to the ground with a surprised look on his face after being decked, and Ahsoka looked down at him with contempt beneath her helm. She didn't fail to notice the way Commander Bacara and his men palmed their weapons after her move.

"Senior Jedi General Mundi I am hereby relieving you of duty following an official inquiry into your capability as a general and your suitability to command the 4th sector army, as well as insubordination for disobeying orders," she stated, keeping her voice calm and level. "Until you are cleared for active duty, your forces shall be remanded to the hand of Commander Bacara." She allowed herself to enjoy the look of Mundi gaping like a fish at her words for a moment before turning to her second. "Commander Zain, you will have General Tann taken up to the Tempest and imprisoned in one of my holding cells under heavy guard. She is not to be removed from my custody or from her cell without my direct order or anything less than the Supreme Chancellor _himself_ overriding my command. Clear?"

"Yes ma'am!" he snapped off an enthusiastic salute.

"Furthermore since I have made the claim against Master Mundi, I would like you to arrange a shuttle to return to Coruscant with him aboard for a military tribunal. Commander Bacara," she turned towards the Galactic Marine with his odd helmet, "you and your men will be joining us first occupying this city, and then wiping the face of the Zygerrian slave trade off this system as per Chancellor Palpatine's original orders. Understood?" The man paused a moment, seemingly considering her.

"Yes ma'am," he eventually stated, giving a salute.

"You can't do this!" protested Mundi as he struggled up, "I am a master of the Jedi Council."

"This is not a Jedi matter it is a military matter. The Jedi were awarded positions in the Grand Army of the Republic through good faith, not through proving their skill previously and earning their ranks. As such, provisions are in place that in the case of unsuitability to command you may be removed from said command before you get your soldiers killed. As a commissioned general of the Grand Army of the Republic it is my right to do so, and indeed my duty if I think you unfit," Ahsoka certainly wasn't getting any satisfaction from dressing down the man who had treated her like a child and had her expelled from the Jedi Order. Nope. Definitely wasn't smiling underneath her helmet either. Thank the force for blank face-plates. "Now if you will excuse me, I have a mission to fulfil." Her piece said she turned from the man and began to walk off. She slowed only for a moment to throw one final command over her shoulder, "and men, if he tries to resist, you are authorised to use force to get Master Mundi to the shuttle and to Coruscant."

His spluttering protests were music to her ears. However the echoing laughter from the captive Chiss as she was dragged away was slightly disconcerting, her leering grin at Ahsoka even more so.

###################################################################################################

"Thank you Commander Bacara, Commander Zain, you are dismissed," Palpatine stated from behind his desk. Ahsoka could feel the two men on her left salute and leave the man's office, but did not turn her head or move from standing at attention with one hand behind her back and one holding her helmet under her arm. Ahsoka had been pleasantly surprised that as she explained the results of their mission to the Chancellor, Bacara had added a few things in her name. She still hadn't been sure what the man thought of her after the situation with Mundi. "You may stand at ease Ahsoka, this is hardly a parade ground," the Chancellor eventually stated in a wry tone of voice.

"Thank you Chancellor," she replied as she relaxed, her head now free to follow him as the man got up and moved over to his large window overlooking the city.

"You caused quite a stir you know, with Master Mundi," the man's voice was neutral and merely stating facts, so she couldn't glean how he felt about the matter. Unease still settled in her heart as she considered the consequences of her actions soon to be coming. "The media are having a field day, and prior concerns about the Jedi being suitable military leaders have jumped even higher."

"I did what I felt was my duty; removed a man from command before his actions could be damaging to the campaign and his men," she replied, moving over to stand slightly behind and to the side as she mirrored his viewing of the city skyline.

"You don't need to justify your actions to me Ahsoka, I've read the reports," Ahsoka's breathing stopped for a moment. "I believe your actions were correct and you did what was right to ensure the campaign went well." And she breathed again. She was very aware of the fact that Palpatine was her benefactor, and it was on his word only that she held her current position. "What concerns me however, is that he held his position for more than two years, and this is the first inquiry of its like to happen in the whole space of the war, and the first time the casualty figures under Jedi command have been investigated."

"I think that may have something to do with the fact only a general or higher rank can call for this Chancellor. There are only three generals who are not Jedi in the army, including myself," Ahsoka said carefully. "If I may, I would suggest that the clones under direct command of the Jedi be able to report and make judgements on their actions. They are fully trained in tactics and the arts of war, and tend to know their officers better than anyone else." The man turned to her, a slight upturn to the side of his mouth.

"It may be a good idea to suggest such a thing when you testify, since it will be a widely publicised event," he replied before walking back over to his desk. "Speaking of which, you are not due to testify for several days, so you have some time off-duty until then."

"I'll still be ready for any emergencies or anything that pops up," Ahsoka said in return.

"A little eager to return to your battlefields?" he replied with a smile. "I think you'll find a ready opponent in the media."

###################################################################################################

"If you wish to look for incompetency, I suggest you check Master Mundi's casualty records for his army and civilians in the local area," Ahsoka declared from her stand, staring down the old Jedi master who represented Mundi's defence. "Though the fault does not lie solely with him. In the Grand Army of the Republic, the Jedi were given positions based on their abilities as force sensitives and guardians of the Republic. However, I can cite through experience, although the Jedi learn to fight with a lightsaber, no-where in training are there lessons on tactics or fighting on a battlefield. That is why each Jedi is assigned a clone officer with the knowledge of these things; however that becomes null and void if they refuse to listen or try to do it themselves. As such, I believe a change in rules is necessary," she took a breath, trying to ignore the multitude of cameras and the fact she was supposed to be testifying, _not_ making the case for the prosecution. "At this time, there are four people who may make the accusations I have done and are not a Jedi-as they have shown they have done nothing on this matter themselves. Those people are myself, a trainer on Kamino, another commissioned officer, and the Supreme Chancellor. I would suggest making the clone officers assigned to the Jedi-who are experts both on them and on tactics-capable of making this decision. Thank you for your time."

As she stepped away from the stand, a number of flashes accompanied the various cameras, taking higher quality stills of her. She wished she could put on the helmet clasped under her arm, but it would have to wait. As she moved to the side of the room, she noticed Tarkin's approving look from his station as prosecutor. Just where he'd stood at her own trial in this very room.

"The court will now adjourn for deliberation of final verdict," announced Palpatine from his station up above before he retreated to decide on Mundi's fate. Ahsoka kept her expression neutral as Tarkin approached her, his grey uniform spotless and neat.

"General Tano," he said in greeting.

"Admiral Tarkin," she clipped in return, unsure of what to think about his attention.

"I'll confess; you've impressed me with how far you've progressed since I first met you. Your views on the Jedi are as surprising as they are thought provoking," the man stated, looking her up and down in the armour she'd stubbornly worn to the event.

"Holding a lightsaber does not instantly equate to being a suitable battlefield commander," she replied simply.

"Indeed," he replied thoughtfully, "tell me, in your report you called Master Mundi out for insubordination, and alluded to his desire to take away General Tann, do you know why?"

"I believe the Jedi council was behind it, in the way they sent him and he focused entirely on extracting her rather than obeying the Chancellor's orders for the campaign. I assumed the reason why was she was another of Dooku's Dark Jedi."

"How did you know she was Dooku's?" he inquired with a curious expression, "you never interrogated her."

"Her fighting style," Ahsoka replied simply, "Dooku's influence was obvious." He nodded in return, accepting her answer.

"I believe however that is not why," he continued, "Sev'rance Tann was believed dead since earlier in the war when she stole plans for a Republic weapon, in the form of a powerful tank named the Decimator."

"You think the Jedi were after the weapon plans?" Ahsoka questioned with a frown. What would the Jedi want with a battle-tank?

"I can see no other logical reason," he stated, looking up as the Supreme Chancellor returned to his seat. Tarkin of course moved off to stand by the station for the prosecution to hear the verdict.

"After much deliberation," Palpatine began, allowing a moment for the flashes of cameras to fade. "It has been decided that Master Mundi shall be demoted to the rank of general, under scrutiny of Commander Bacara for a period of six months whereupon his performance shall be reviewed again. The Galactic Marines shall stay separate from the 4th Sector Army, which I shall appoint a new senior general for shortly. Court is adjourned."

It wasn't too heavy of a sentence, but it demanded Mundi improve or lose his position, which would be good for the war effort.

Ahsoka remained by the wall for a moment as the room began to clear of the few people within-the public not physically being there, but viewing the trial by the Holonet. She noticed Mundi giving her a glare, and allowed herself a moment of satisfaction at the expression. If the Jedi was showing emotion, she'd certainly done something of note.

Deciding it was time to leave, she walked past the empty station for the prosecution where Tarkin had stood and made for the exit. The room beyond was the lobby for the building; as drab and military grey as the rest of the place. She walked past the clones on duty and opened the main doors to a plethora of flashes. The togruta stood there and blinked for a few moments as her blue eyes attempted to adjust to the light levels, and the sudden shouting of voices that made itself known.

The crowd of people beyond the barriers and armoured clones was surprising to say the least. Although she'd heard about the paparazzi from Padme and such, she'd never encountered them for herself.

"General Tano!" a voice declared, and her head whipped to the source automatically to find a woman holding out a microphone. "What are your views on the Jedi's capabilities in this war?"

"Well…" she started in reply, increasingly aware of all the cameras now trained on her. "I believe they are valuable assets to the army, as their capabilities allow them to destroy a battalion of droids single-handedly. However as I said inside, their skill as commanders and tacticians varies from person to person."

"General Tano!" a green-skinned twi'lek grabbed her attention, "you claim there is no battlefield or tactical training within the Jedi where you previously served, surely these same allegations could be made about your own ability?"

"I learnt on the job," she replied, slightly more calm thinking about her own achievements, "with the 501st Legion, the time I did not spend training with my lightsaber I spent learning battle tactics from Captain Rex, not to mention the time I spent on actual battlefields with them, learning from experience. If you wish to investigate me, I'd be happy to allow my battle statistics to come under public scrutiny."

"What would you say to critics who claim the clone army should be downsized?" another voice called out.

"Absolutely not," she replied firmly, "we cannot give the Separatists any slack. There are worlds out there whose cities burn every day from Separatist attack, whose people face death and enslavement. I would remind those critics that were it not for the army of the Republic; they would not be sleeping so safely in their beds at night."

"What about allegations that a corrupt senate is prolonging this war?" The question took Ahsoka aback for a moment, but she let nothing show on her face.

"I would say I'm a soldier not a politician. No more questions."

###################################################################################################

"You wanted to see me Supreme Chancellor?" Ahsoka inquired as she stepped into his surprisingly dark office. Palpatine was to be found staring out of his long bay window at the night-time lights of Coruscant.

"Yes, please take a seat," he replied, gesturing to one of the chairs in front of his desk. As the togruta sat down, Palpatine turned to face her, his face oddly half enshrouded in shadow. "When do you think the war will be over?"

"When we have order," Ahsoka stated after a moment of deliberation.

"An interesting choice of words, care to explain?"

"If I may speak freely?" he gave a nod, "in my opinion the galaxy is sick. It has been for a very long time. Revan pointed out all of the Republic's flaws centuries ago, and nothing has changed except the Senate perhaps becoming more corrupt and the Outer Rim more lawless. The Separatists are a symptom, not the disease itself. That is far more deep-rooted. I believe that for the first time in a long time we have an opportunity to do something about that. We have an army with which we could bring the Outer Rim into line, topple the Hutt Cartels that have held power so long, eliminate the Black Sun, destroy the slave trade…"

"Admirable and far-thinking ideals," Palpatine stated, "you think beyond just the current threat to the future ones." He moved from his position to sit in his chair, leaning back to look at her with those perceptive eyes. "In the past few months, you have excelled in the command position you were awarded. As such, I am promoting you to senior general in command of the 4th Sector Army." Ahsoka gaped at the man, and he gave a slight smile at her expression. "Do you accept?"

"I…" she hadn't expected this, and it was taking a moment to get her brain back in gear, "I accept. Thank-you Supreme Chancellor."

 **A/N: And there we are, four thousand words. I'm gonna try and get another chapter written in the next few days to a week, however I'm struggling to remember how I wanted the plot to go for the next bit and I never wrote it down. Going to need to ad-lib a bit. Anyway, enjoy. Scenes might seem short and the entire story might be (if I complete it), but that's a consequence of the fact I don't remember quite enough.  
**


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: Well, this apparently has some actual followers (I never really expected anyone to be really interested in the rubbish I'm writing) and since I do have a general idea of where this fic was supposed to go, I feel kinda obligated not to leave you hanging. Note please, I wrote the first two chapters of this in 2013 or early 2014, and I never wrote down my plans for the plot, so this is just operating on memory of how I wanted things to go, mainly in this I can't remember how/when I was going to have Ahsoka discover Padme's pregnancy, and if I was going to push an Anisoka pairing. I hope you'll forgive my bad attempts at covering the gaps in my memory. I think I may also need to go re-watch RotS.**

 **Disclaimer: I OWN NOTHING, property of respective owners etc.**

Chapter 4

Contemplation.

Ahsoka hated it.

And yet, here she was, sitting on the roof of the Coruscanti military barracks thinking over the day previous' events. It was just so huge, everything that had happened. Elation. Revelation. Achievement. Loss.

So many emotions clamouring to be acknowledged at the forefront of her mind.

She let out a sigh, and closed her eyes while leaning backwards, breathing in the filthy night air. She wished she could just go back, past these tumultuous days and months to when she was simply a padawan, by her master's side, obeying the order's given with a smile and a spring in her step.

But she couldn't.

And hence her mind turned back to the events of the last day…

##################################################################################

It was somewhat in a daze that Ahsoka moved across the city, seeking something solid to cling onto. Senior General. _Her. A Senior General_. That put her on the same ranking in the army as Master Yoda!

As much as she felt slight fear over the consequences of command previously, she had 'merely' had a few hundred men under her command, not much more power than she held under the 501st. Now she had thousands under her direct or indirect command, technically including Jedi, and she was required as a tactician to help provide plans for the future of the war in session with the other nineteen of her fellows.

As far as the war effort was concerned, the only person who outranked her was the Supreme Chancellor himself. Her opinion and her views were now considered on a council that commanded the entire army across the whole galaxy.

Frankly, it scared her. She was seventeen, an age where a normal girl would be worrying probably about education, or boys _,_ or something equally frivolous. She had the lives of thousands of soldiers, and dozens of worlds to worry about.

She stopped walking when a man asked if she was okay, and she realized her feet had led her to the base of the 500 Republica; the apartment building of Coruscant's elite.

"I'm fine," she muttered in reply, waving the doorman off.

"Are you here to see someone?" the man inquired, looking over the armour she was still wearing to the helmet that obscured her young visage.

"I…" she paused, what was she doing here? Her mind implanted a suggestion, seemingly from nowhere that felt right. She _needed_ someone to talk to. "Senator Padme Amidala." One of the only people she could really consider a friend from her short lifespan.

"Alright, can I take your name?" the man's face was sceptical, after all as a doorman to this building of all places he must get a lot people who wanted access to the stars, celebrities and senators who lived here.

"Ahsoka," she replied, staring up at the heights of the sky-scraping tower, towards the penultimate floor with its glass roof. One floor down from the Supreme Chancellor himself's private residence.

"One moment please," the man stepped away with a finger pressed to his ear, exchanging rapid words with someone inside before a look of surprise coloured his features. "Head straight on in General Tano, four hundred and ninety-ninth floor."

"Thank-you," she replied, somewhat absent mindedly as she stepped through the wide doors into the huge lobby for the building, all with a red, Republican theme.

She received a few odd looks in her strange armour, and a few salutes from the clones in Coruscanti Guard colours. She simply ignored the former and nodded respectfully at the latter, her gaze focused on the turbo-lifts at the far end of the lobby.

The final few guards at the lifts made no move to stop her as she stepped into one, the doors sliding shut behind her.

"Four hundred and ninety-ninth floor," she enunciated clearly for the system to pick up.

"Confirmed," an electronic sounding woman's voice said in reply, and as Ahsoka turned to face the lift doors, the lobby swiftly disappearing as she sped upwards towards her destination. She didn't feel the acceleration, or subsequent deceleration as she stopped at the correct floor, and the ornate doors opened to reveal the antechamber of the Senator's apartments.

"Captain Typho," she acknowledged the man in his leather uniform and distinctive eye-patch who awaited her arrival it seemed.

"General Tano," he said in reply, bowing slightly, "I hope that this visit is for pleasure and not business." It wasn't surprising that the head of Padme's security thought her arrival might mean an omen of some kinda of danger to his employer after all the trouble she managed to get into, including with Ahsoka herself she had to admit.

"Just a visit for a chat between friends," she confirmed with a smile as she pulled off her helmet. "No dangers to the Senator as far as I know."

"That's a relief for sure," he replied with a wry grin. "Threepio!" he called over his shoulder, and Ahsoka felt a slight surge of affection as the bumbling golden droid shuffled into view.

"Mistress Ahsoka! How wonderful to see you again," he exclaimed as he approached.

"You too, Threepio," she said with a smile, "how's the leg-joint holding up?"

"Oh, fine. Master Anakin had a look at it after that business on Corellia. Please come on through, Mistress Padme is expecting you," she followed after the golden protocol droid slowly, moving through the door that opened into the main living area of Padme's apartments.

"Ahsoka!" the togruta found herself enveloped in a hug not long after stepping through, the smell of expensive perfumes and the latest fashion in silks pressing against her. "It's been so long since I last saw you." The brown haired woman drew back a bit to survey her.

"I know, I've been a bit busy," Ahsoka said apologetically. In-fact, the last time she had seen the woman had been when Padme had briefly given her somewhere to stay after leaving the Order, before she got her commission.

"I should say! Fighting battle after battle on the outer rim, and then bringing a Jedi into military court. I barely recognise you in all this armour."

"Yes, well, it helps stop me getting killed," she gave a little grin.

"Don't joke about things like that," Padme batted her hand against Ahsoka's arm with a frown.

"Okay, bad taste. Besides, you've changed yourself, you…." she trailed off, staring at the woman. There was something different, fundamentally different in-fact about her, but Ahsoka couldn't but her finger on it.

"Is something wrong?" the senator looked confusedly at the way Ahsoka was staring at her.

"Something about you…" the Force was pressing in on the togruta's temples, she could _feel_ it trying to signal something important. She waved her hand at the woman, trying to get a feel for whatever it was and froze.

Of all things, she didn't expect _that_.

"Ahsoka?"

Ahsoka didn't know what to say, she was speechless. Should she even say anything? What if she didn't know? All the previous troubles she had entered the building with had long since fled her mind as she considered an even more pressing question; _who_ had…helped do this for lack of a better term.

"I'm not sure if I should say…" she said quietly.

"What's wrong?" Padme replied with a worried expression, her gaze turning fearful as the togruta didn't reply. "Ahsoka, you can tell me. What is it?"

"I don't know if I should be the one to tell you but…" Ahsoka looked into the woman's soulful brown eyes, "you're pregnant." The look of surprise that crossed her face was brief, before she started worrying her lip and looking concerned. "I'm guessing you knew already then."

"I found out a few days ago…" the woman confirmed, pressing a hand down to her stomach as she stared at it with an odd expression. "How did you know?"

"It's force sensitive, definitely," Ahsoka said, reaching out with her mind to the little swirl of a disturbance in the woman's stomach. "Presumably a very strong connection to the force if I can feel them this early on, as you can't be more than two months?"

"Close to three I think," Padme replied, "b-but, you could sense him immediately?"

"Well I was already looking at you intently, and I know you normally. Wait, he?" Ahsoka frowned, "are you sure it's a he?"

"I just know he is, I can't say how," the woman rubbed her stomach thoughtfully, as if caressing the child growing within.

"Well it's pretty likely you're right," Ahsoka said thoughtfully. "It's not uncommon for women carrying a Force user to gain something of a connection themselves, just a sense for certain things. Don't be surprised if you know when someone's lying to you or you feel particularly perceptive over the next few months."

"I hadn't even thought of that," Padme replied, "I've more been panicking."

"Padme, there's no need to worry," Ahsoka placed a hand on the woman's arm to reassure her, "its wonderful news. I'm happy for you, I really am."

"You don't understand, I'm happy to be having a baby, but the situation…" her brown eyes were seemingly brimming with tears ready to shed, "I'm a senator, and my husband…we married in secret, because we're not people who are ever supposed to be together. How am I going to hide this from the press? And what about the child? The Jedi…." Realisation hit Ahsoka hard. She was scared for losing her child to the Jedi order. They practically leapt onto any chance for new younglings and took them from their families from a young age; they rarely let one slip past their fingers. And if Ahsoka could sense him this early one, then Padme's child was likely to be powerful one day…The Jedi would never pass up an opportunity like this, especially with their numbers depleted by the war.

"Padme, you need to stay calm. They can't force your child away from you, not even they have the right to do that," ' _Though there are rumours they use mind-tricks to persuade parents_ ,' she left unsaid. Padme didn't need to hear something like that right now. "You're a prominent figure; they can't just rip away your child as soon as he's born."

"But they'll want to," Padme stated more calmly than Ahsoka would have expected.

"Yes, I won't lie to you, they'll want to," she replied, and as the human woman sniffled she guided her over to a plush sofa. She waved a hand, and levitated a convenient box of tissues over to them, offering one to Padme, who blew her nose thoroughly.

"What was it like? In the Order," she asked quietly.

"I don't know, I haven't much to compare it to," Ahsoka replied, mulling over the question. "It was very ordered I suppose, we were taught to be quiet and contemplative. Passive, not aggressive."

"D-do you remember your parents?"

Ahsoka drew in a sharp breath at the question, and paused for a long moment before replying;

"No…my earliest memory is Master Plo giving me a piece of fruit, and then I vaguely remember arriving at the Temple." Her answer didn't improve the feelings of the woman slowly working herself into a panic beside her.

"If-if it was your child, would you let them go to the Order?" Padme looked deep into her eyes as she asked that, and Ahsoka knew what she meant; 'Do you trust the Order?'

"No," she answered honestly, "I wouldn't. And Padme I will tell you this, if that's your decision as well I will help you keep him from them. There…there are ways of hiding a force presence, and other such things. I promise you, I'll help." The woman's brown eyes regained some hopefulness through the unspoilt tears. "You helped me in my time of need, and you're one of my few friends. It would be pretty bad of me to do otherwise wouldn't it?"

A warm feeling spread through the togruta as the woman flung her arms around her, and whispered 'thank-you.'

It was for many hours through that night, that Ahsoka allowed the older woman to vent her emotions, her worries, and her feelings onto her. Many tissues were spent, and though Ahsoka felt awkward at times with all the emotion displayed which she had little experience with, she remained there. It was not until the sun had been up for a while that she withdrew from where the human was slumped against her, lightly sleeping, and gathered her helmet once more.

"Where are you going?" inquired a curious voice from behind her, and she winced, realising she had woken the woman up.

"I need to go out on parade to inspect my new troops," Ahsoka replied, holding her helm under one arm while turning to the puffy eyed Senator.

"New troops?" she asked confusedly.

"Oh, I guess I forgot to mention after all that stuff last night, that was actually the reason I came over…" Ahsoka rubbed the back of her head, "I got promoted." Padme's mouth formed an 'O' shape, and her head dipped to look at Ahsoka's chest where five burgundy dots were displayed over her left breast. Palpatine had given her the new decal before she left his office. "Senior General, 4th Sector."

"Mundi's old position?"

"Yeah, the Supreme Chancellor gave me the post last night."

"That was quick, the trial was so recently."

"I know, everything seems to be moving so fast recently. I'm kinda scared of being responsible for so many people."

"I guess it's the consequence of being competent," Ahsoka allowed her lips to turn up a little at Padme's comment. "You should take it as a compliment if nothing else."

"I suppose. However, I had better be going. It wouldn't do to be late for my first appointment at this rank," Ahsoka punctuated her statement by slipping on her helmet until it rested snugly around her montrals. "I'll see you around Padme."

"Ahsoka, wait," the Senator moved to her feet, smoothing out the doubtless expensive dress that had become crumpled by the impromptu night on the sofa. "I…thank-you, for last night. What you said means a lot and…well, next time you're on Coruscant, I'd like for you to meet my husband."

"If you're sure, then I'd be happy to. I'll confess, I'm curious as to who could steal your heart away," Ahsoka smiled beneath her face-plate. "I'll let you know when I'm back. Until then." She gave a small wave, and walked through the door into the antechamber. She paused only once on her way to lifts, mid-step feeling as if the Force had…changed somewhat, as if a ripple had passed through it. The sensation, however, was gone as quickly as it came, so with a shrug, she summoned the lift to take her back downstairs.

##################################################################################

"You are the men of the 4th Sector Army, of the Grand Army of the Republic. But more than that, you are a part of the greatest fighting unit this galaxy has ever seen. I like to think that when a Separatist lays eyes upon you and your brothers, that they have a need for waterproof underwear," a small wave of chuckles moved throughout the force standing at attention in the military sector of Coruscant. Almost all clones, and in the varying armours and uniforms of their position, be it shock trooper, pilot, navigator, medic, scout, or just normal trooper in shiny white. Ahsoka surveyed them all with a pride singing in her heart, and butterflies in her stomach. "Ours is a bold task gentlemen; to bring peace and order to a galaxy that is rife with those who would deny us our victory. Well, let it be said now. No matter who they are, no matter what they bring against us, and no matter where they are, we shall show them our determination. Our perseverance. Our will to fight. And then they shall truly tremble in their boots. For while there is blood in our bodies, and power in our weapons, we shall make a stand for what is right!"

Several cheers rang out through the wide open space where Venator-class cruisers were normally landed, and Ahsoka allowed herself a smile. She was about to continue when she felt a tingling, a warning. She cocked her head as the sense of foreboding grew, expanding into what felt almost like a physical pressure mounting on her montrals and she winced at the strain. The Force was echoing through over _something_ , something coming from…..

She inclined her head to the sky and stared upwards through the smog of Coruscant to the skies above. Her hand absently pressed a button on her vambrace to change the frequency of her comms unit.

"Control Tower, come in," she said quickly, her senses heightened as she awaited the response. _Something_ was about to happen.

"This is Control," came the answer of a familiar clone accent.

"Search the space above Coruscant, all ships incoming, ships leaving Hyperspace, anything," she commanded.

"Yes Ma'am," he replied. Ahsoka felt the eyes of her troops on her as she looked to the sky, silent to them in the middle of her speech. Zain was looking at her from the side with a tilt in his helm, concern radiating from him. "Nothing outside the usual, Ma'am, the sector is clear," came the eventual reply after a long few moments. Ahsoka didn't relax however, her premonitions were _never_ wrong. She had learnt long ago to trust in the Force and what it would tell her. "Wait, the sensors…Hyperspacial arrivals, dozens of them!" A clamouring of voices were just audible over the communicator as Ahsoka felt her heart sink. "Kriffing Hell," the main man she had come into contact with eventually stated, before seemingly remembering she was still on the line, "Ma'am, multiple Confederacy cruisers just exited Hyperspace above the planet, and the guard on Coruscant are reporti-." She cut him off at that point, switching back to the frequency the speakers in the local area received.

"It would seem the Separatists feel like obliging our desire to meet them in battle. All men, battle-stations immediately! All hands to ships, I want everyone off the ground as soon as possible!" Her orders given, the clones hesitated only for a moment before they broke formation, running for the exit to the parade ground. "Zain!" she commanded as said commander rushed over to her, "I want all relevant information on the current situation, meet me at the Tempest. This is an assault on Coruscant."

 **A/N: Bit of a while between updates, and I can't promise there won't be on the next one I'm afraid. I'm swamped with work, and what free time I have is currently being spent on writing a DnD campaign I'm DM'ing. Still, I do sort of know where I'm going here, so I wouldn't count it as dead.**


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: I'm starting this only a day after I uploaded the last chap, don't know when it will go up, but I'm trying to do this while I have free time and the inclination. Also for those who don't know, the scene around and after Shaak Ti isn't in the main film, but was in deleted scenes.**

 **Also, I'll be the first one to confess I'm not good at battle scenes, I'm far better at dialogue so…please don't hate my fight scenes.**

 **Disclaimer: I OWN NOTHING, property of respective owners etc.**

Chapter 5

"V-Wing Squadrons one through seven, stay around our cruisers and protect our ships, we can't afford to lose them. ARC-170's, one through three, you're with them, back the dogfighting up with firepower," Ahsoka dialled up various instruments in her ship as she buckled in, barking commands as she did. The heavily modified V-Wing fighter wasn't quite up to the mark of her old Aethersprite, but it had heavier ordinance. "The rest of the ARC's, I want you attacking enemy cruisers. Hit 'em hard and bolt as fast as you can before forming up for another run. Last of the V-Wings, we have a few squadrons of Y-Wings, I want you to stick tight to them, they are our real heavy hitters and if you can get them through, they can easily take down a cruiser or three. Fly well men, the fate of all the people below may just rest upon us." A chorus of 'Yes Ma'am's followed her commands, but Ahsoka barely registered them as she pulled down the canopy. Switching to a different frequency on her instruments, she contacted the bridge of the Tempest; "Zain! Have you found Grievous' flag ship?"

"Yes Ma'am, it's right in the thick of it, too hemmed in to get away to light speed," the man replied.

"Send the co-ords to my ship, that'll be where the Chancellor is being held."

"Doing it now General," he dutifully stated. Indeed, as the fighter lifted off the floor of the hangar, she could see course vectors outlining in her computer systems.

"Thanks Zain," she said as she boosted out of the hangar, "and tell the men, squadron with the most kills gets a round on me."

"Will do, general."

With that, she signed off the system, allowing her hands to glide over the joystick, artfully flipping through the air as the fighter hummed around her. Ahsoka's mind settled down, concentrating on the ship and the space around her with the Force. Almost lazily, she listed to the left on a premonition to avoid a burst of red laser fire from a droid tri-fighter, returning fire with her own green bolts to blow the machine up.

Ignoring the remains of the ruined droid as they battered past her canopy, she focused on following the trail path on her navigation systems to where Grievous' ship was. The huge behemoth was familiar, a Providence class Dreadnought, with the hooked beak-like nose and the bridge far above the main body.

Artfully, she slipped in and out of the mess of Republic and Confederacy cruisers, the thrum of the fighter around her soothing Ahsoka' mind into a deeper state within the Force. Halfway there, however, her head twitched as she sensed the familiar. Searching with both her mind and her eyes, she identified two small strike-fighters, which were little more than a cockpit and wings. One yellow and grey, the other red and grey. Recognition as much of the markings as the Force presences of the pilots alluded to the identities of the two Jedi, and almost without thinking, she was searching the old frequencies she remembered until familiar bickering could be heard.

"We got 'em Artoo," commented Anakin Skywalker as his corkscrewing caused two missiles following him to hit each other and explode.

"Flying's for droids," muttered Kenobi, as he pulled into a steep dive to try and avoid his own duo of missiles. Ahsoka latched on behind him, and as they overshot his ship, she fired a pair of green bolts that destroyed the weapons before they could release their cargo of buzz-droids.

"Am I always having to save you boys?" she commented while boosting ahead of the pair.

"Snips!" exclaimed Anakin, joy evident as much as surprise in his response. "Good to see you, Ahsoka."

"Indeed. Nice shooting," added the unflappable Kenobi, who didn't sound in the least bit surprised of course.

"Thanks," Ahsoka smiled at the familiar sensation of the presences of the two Jedi. She almost got lost in nostalgia for a moment before she remembered the situation. "I'm guessing you're on the same route as me, rescuing the Chancellor?"

"From Grievous," confirmed Anakin. "In-fact, here he is." Indeed, as the man said, the flagship was finally directly in front of the trio. Ahsoka's eye however picked out a slight problem, and she twisted to the side to line up her sights.

"Well, have you noticed the shields are still up!" Kenobi exclaimed, looking at the light blue haze in front of the hangar bay.

"Way ahead of you," Ahsoka murmured as she fired off a proton torpedo from under her ship, which swiftly impacted in the generators to the side of the hangar bay. The togruta let a smile creep onto her lips as the shields failed, but it was replaced quickly with a frown as the blast doors started sliding in from the left. "Stang it," she muttered while pushing her speed up as quickly as possible to reach the hangar before the door closed. She clenched the stick tightly, and barely registered the slight annoyance as Anakin rocketed past her into the hangar, swiftly followed by Kenobi. She herself barely made it in, the edge of the door just clipping her wing and sending her spinning across the floor.

When she eventually came to rest and popped the canopy, the pair of Jedi were just finishing off a squad of security battle droids, notable by their red markings. Stepping from her vehicle, she found her old master smiling at her.

"Little bit slow on the acceleration there, Snips," he said, deliberately using the nickname he had developed for her on their first day as master and padawan.

"Well, not all of us have fancy interceptors anymore, Skyguy," she said in reply, crossing her arms. "What are those, Eta?"

"Eta-2-Actis light interceptor," he replied, "with mods of course."

"Of course," she made an off-handed gesture as if she expected nothing less, which she did. "I still prefer the Delta-7B, heavier shields, bigger engines, bigger guns. Those things look like they're made of foil."

"By the Force I'd forgotten what is was like when you two talked shop," Obi-wan interjected, "we do have a job to do if you remember, you can fawn over technology later."

"Spoilsport," Ahsoka returned, but settled for moving over to hug Anakin, which felt a bit strange with all her armour on, but still felt good. "It's good to see you Anakin."

"You too 'Soka. Nice armour by the way," he said with a grin. "Come on, if we don't hurry up Obi-wan will be very cross with us. Artoo, have you found him yet?"

Said astromech burbled from where he was plugged into a wall socket, and displayed a holographic map of the ship distinctly showing a red blip on an observation deck beneath the bridge. Which of course meant they had half the ship to cover to reach the Chancellor.

"Well, there he is. We'd better get moving," Kenobi stated. "Artoo, you stay here with the ships. We may need to make a quick exit."

"Hey old buddy, you might want this," Ahsoka handed the droid a small comms chip containing information to contact herself via her helmet. "Shout if anything changes, and look out for yourself, droids'll probably investigate this in a minute." The astromech's dome whirled in confirmation after accepting the chip, and she nodded once to him before following the two Jedi into a stark metal corridor beyond the hangar.

"I sense Count Dooku," Anakin commented as they hurried down through the area.

"I smell a trap," Kenobi replied.

"Well considering how many security cameras we've passed and the fact we haven't met a single droid since the skeleton crew in the hangar, I'd say you're right," Ahsoka commented.

"Plan?" Anakin ventured in reply.

"Spring the trap," Kenobi added light-heartedly, making Ahsoka groan.

"By the Force, with our luck it'll end up being a rancor or something," she stated.

"On a ship?" Obi-wan asked dubiously.

"It wouldn't surprise me," she stated honestly, "Yoda said once that when Skyguy was involved the uncommon became ordinary, or something like that."

"I'll take that as a compliment," said man returned.

"You would," Ahsoka muttered. Their running paused briefly at a set of doors, which Obi-wan swiftly waved his hand at to open. They halted once dashing through however at the sight of the 'T-junction' beyond.

To the left were several deployed destroyer droids and super battle droids. To the right, General Grievous stood with his pair of ever-present magna-guards, and several super battle droids. At Grievous's clawed feet sat Shaak Ti, master of the Jedi order, with a dozen guns aimed at her.

The sight of the master brought up older memories of her time in the order. It was this woman-one of few other togruta within the order-who had explained certain aspects of puberty to her since she lacked a parent-figure, about her montrals and lekku and such. She hadn't exactly been close with the woman, but she knew her.

And she still felt the pulse in the force as a hole was burnt through her chest.

"Two Jedi, and a padawan playing at a soldier," the general stated derisively as a white energy shield sprung up around the trio from the ceiling, effectively trapping them.

"Y'see, this is the kind of thing I meant," Ahsoka said, looking disdainfully at the energy cage.

"Yes I see your point," Kenobi replied with equal lack of care. "I was thinking," he proceeded to sniff and twirl the end of his moustache.

"No that would never work with that many of them," Skywalker dismissed. "Perhaps…" he tapped his pulse point on his neck and twisted his earlobe.

"That won't work either," Ahsoka stated, turning back to stare at Grievous who was glowering at them while silently seething. "Remember that cruiser above Telos, day two of campaign."

"That should work," Anakin agreed.

"Worth a go I suppose," the other Jedi acquiesced, at which each of them whipped a lightsaber into hand, ignited it, and cut through the floor beneath in a quick circle, dropping them down into a river of liquid. "Quickly, let's go."

"Don't worry, they can't shoot down here without igniting the plasma and ripping the ship apart," Anakin assured.

"Which means we have about two minutes before they seal it off and ignite it anyway," Ahsoka stated, "not to mention them following us down."

"Either way, we need to get moving," Kenobi reaffirmed as they waded through the gloopy liquid. They remained silent through the trek, mostly concentrating on staying upright until they stopped by a silent decision.

Anakin carefully drew his lightsaber, and kept it above the plasma as he cut a hole in the ceiling. Jumping through he quickly called the all clear, leading Ahsoka and Obi-wan to follow through to where he stood by the lifts.

"These should take us up to the observation deck where the Chancellor is being held," the young man commented.

"You make it sound so simple," Ahsoka said drily, "I'd be surprised if we made it up there un-accosted. My bets are still on a ran-heads up, destroyers!" Ahsoka cut short her joking by igniting her twin emerald blades to defend against several red bolts of energy from a quartet of the brown droids. Backing up she joined the other two at the lift which had mercifully opened, backing into the space beyond with the doors closing just after she entered.

Ahsoka even managed to relax for a moment, believing they were safe in the lift.

"Hands up!" declared a familiar electronically toned voice, and she twisted to find the squadron of battle droids they were sharing the lift with. In the time it took her to think perhaps she should have stayed in the space battle outside, Obi-wan and Anakin had cut them down with their blue lightsabers, ending the next on the list of things trying to kill them.

"Just a few droids, no rancors yet," Anakin commented.

"Just you wait," Ahsoka threw over her shoulder as she stared intently at the closed metal doors. "It will happen. Maybe not today, but some day. Besides, we still haven't made our way to the main trap yet."

Evidently, someone had decided that her saying that meant they should go no further, and the lift ground to a halt.

"Apparently they don't want us reaching said trap," Kenobi stated the words she was thinking. With a sigh, the togruta opened the communication line to the unit she'd left with Artoo.

"Artoo? We need you to get elevator….283B going," after a brief pause with no reply or change, she frowned, "Artoo, do you read me?" Absently she noticed Anakin cutting a hole in the ceiling and leaping through. Moving to the side, she looked up through the hole while Obi-wan seemed to be investigating the controls.

So it was, that when the lift suddenly dropped very quickly she was entirely unprepared and scrabbled for a handhold as she fell halfway out of the hole, catching on to the rim to keep her grip.

"Agh. No the other way Artoo! We need to be going up," she said quickly, stretching her other arm back down to get a better grip on the underside of the hole. When the direction did suddenly reverse, she of course collapsed back through in an undignified heap while Kenobi appeared merely bending at the knees a little. "Thanks buddy," she groaned out, cutting the line as she got up. "Not a word," she warned the orange-haired Jedi master, who waved a hand non-committedly in reply.

Ahsoka flinched and reached for her sabres for a moment when Anakin leapt through the hole in the roof, casually straightening his robes. The look he gave her conveyed much the same message she had given his old master a few moments before.

And so, they remained in contemplative silence as the box rose up the ship before finally reaching a halt.

When the doors opened, they quickly fanned out, covering each other's backs automatically. The room beyond was two tiered, and to the left on the bottom level by the observation window was Palpatine, secured in a chair. Of course, up on the right above them was Count Dooku, flanked by several super battle droids.

"Ah, Masters Kenobi and Skywalker. And _Senior General_ Tano, you have been moving up in the world haven't you?" the old man sneered over at them with an ever-present superior expression.

"Count Dooku," Anakin drawled, "it's time for you to face justice."

"Ah, but this is three upon one, that hardly seems fair now, does it?" the Sith grinned as the doors to the room opened up to admit rows of battle droids intermixed with super battle droids.

"Get Dooku, I'll deal with this lot," Ahsoka stated calmly as she ignited her green lightsabers. The other two didn't question her capability, just shedding their cloaks and igniting their own weapons. She knew they, the masters of Ataru and Soresu respectively, were far better duellists than she. Though her skill was a lightsaber was not insignificant, it took the very well learned to face Dooku; the renowned master of Makashi, a form designed for lightsaber-to-lightsaber combat barely practiced by the order for the past few centuries due to lack of necessity for it.

So it was with a grin that Ahsoka launched herself into the crowd of droids, her emerald blades whipping up and around, but she herself never delving too far into the crowd, concentrating on thinning it out closer to the duelling trio.

She was halfway through junking the grey body of a super battle droid when her peripheral vision and local echo-location sensed the body thrown across the room and witnessed Obi-wan slump to the floor, unconscious.

With agility born of the natural ability of her species as much as the Force, she leapt backwards in a backflip, granting her a view of Dooku forcing Anakin back with lightning before he turned to face her.

"I sense great anger in you, young padawan, so much potential left unused," he said with a grin.

"Not really," Ahsoka commented, laying in her first blow up high, quickly following down and to the right, forcing him onto his undefended side without a lightsaber. She put effort into her blows, forcing the master dueller back with attacks not from any form, relying on her determination and strength to force the man back as she knew she could not beat his skill.

He had a disapproving look on his face at her un-artful barrage, which swiftly changed into a cry of pain as she slammed her armoured foot against his shin. Quickly, Ahsoka used his distraction to splay her hand and push him backwards towards where Anakin was waiting.

Dooku tried to bring up his red blade to defend against the Jedi, but with one swipe Skywalker batted it away, and with a second decisive slash he severed both the older man's hands at the wrist; paying him back twofold for the injury he himself had suffered at his hands.

A twist of the force, and Anakin was holding both his own blue lightsaber, and Dooku's curve-hilted red one at the man's throat in an 'X' shape, ready to behead him.

"Good, Anakin, very good," came Palpatine's voice from where the combatants had largely forgotten him. "Kill him." The brown haired man hesitated for a long few moments, his hands twitching. Dooku's face descended into a fearful expression at the realisation he was considering it.

"I shouldn't," he said, sounding as if he was trying to persuade himself rather than them.

"He's a threat to the Republic, Anakin," Ahsoka said solemnly, "he's too dangerous to let live."

It was for a long moment that he hovered, but with a twitch of his hands, the Sith's severed head fell to the floor with a heavy thump. Anakin remained staring at the corpse for a few seconds, during which Ahsoka had no idea to say. She knew the man held his morals very tightly, and the act would nag at his conscience in a way it wouldn't at his ex-padawans. She had seen the atrocities committed by his armies, and in his name, and she would feel no compunction in ending his life.

"I shouldn't have done that," the Jedi eventually stated, moving over to release Palpatine from his restraints.

"You did the right thing, Anakin," the Chancellor reassured him, "Ahsoka was right, he was too dangerous to let live."

"He was an unarmed prisoner," he replied, his expression doubtful.

"That's war, Skyguy, sometimes you have to make tough decisions," Ahsoka said softly, still finding it slightly odd that it was her comforting him, her elder and ex-master.

"Indeed," agreed Palpatine, "we should get moving before any security droids show up." Ahsoka nodded in agreement, however as he made for the exit, Anakin knelt down next to Obi-wan.

"He seems to be okay," he stated after checking the older man over.

"I should think so, it would take more than a Sith Lord for him to stop being around to chastise us," Ahsoka replied drily, "pick him up and let's get going, we can think up the story of what happened while he was out on the way."

"A rancor showed up maybe?" he said, finally gaining his grin back as he hefted the other Jedi up over his shoulder.

"No, no, it has to be believable," Ahsoka shook her head, already turning back towards the Chancellor by the exit, "a Terentatek showed up, obviously. Doubtless summoned by Dooku to kill us." That drew a laugh from him as they walked over to the elevator bank. Ahsoka frowned as she surveyed the controls however. "Elevators are out," she tapped a button on her vambrace once more, "hey Artoo, need another elevator activated. Number…332B."

After waiting for a few moments, the doors opened up showing the droid had got to work, but currently only the empty elevator shaft was visible beyond. Ahsoka was about to inquire as to where the elevator itself was when there was a rumbling, and the floor tilted. Stumbling, the three of them caught on to the sides of the doors and hung on for dear life.

"The artificial gravity's failed," Ahsoka stated, somewhat obviously, and then her eyes widened as the floor reached vertical levels and she realised what it entailed, "we're pointing straight down."

"Yep," groaned Anakin as he pulled himself into the elevator shaft, giving the Chancellor a hand up as she climbed in as well. "However, it does give us an easy way down."

"True, I suppose," she replied, following the man as he took off at a jog down the shaft. "Though I don't think you've thought this through."

"Enlighten me."

"Well…either we're going to crash into the planet below and die in a fireball, or they're going to right the ship and…" her comment was cut off as what she had said indeed began to happen, the deck underneath them beginning to tilt back up to where it should be. Which meant their current floor was becoming a wall.

"Fair point," grunted Anakin as he scrabbled for purchase, eventually catching a wire to hang onto. Ahsoka meanwhile had grabbed the Chancellor's hand, and then a slight ledge with a convenient lip upwards which she held onto with all her strength, feeling the stretch across her body between the weight of the two of them.

And then of course it had to get worse.

A grinding noise came from above as the elevator started dropping towards them.

"Stang," she exclaimed, staring upwards at the metal shape.

"Language," admonished Kenobi as he decided to make an appearance, looking around confusedly, "what the hell's going on here?"

"Well, you know," Anakin started, "there was a Terentatek, and we killed Count Dooku, and we may be in an elevator shaft about to be crushed by a ton of metal."

"The usual then," the man replied, "pitons?"

"Pitons," Ahsoka confirmed, letting go of her handheld as the other two dropped. She didn't fail to notice how tightly the Chancellor gripped her arm during the freefall while she pulled a piton from her belt. In the kind of simultaneous synch only possible through the Force, the three of them threw the small hooks over a beam above to swing across the shaft towards a door, which was swiftly opened by three identical pushes at the Force.

They stepped casually into the corridor as if nothing had happened, completely ignoring the lift as it fell past where they just were. Ahsoka helped the Chancellor to his feet, who gave a simple nod of thanks while Kenobi looked pensive.

"A Terentatek you say?" he inquired innocently, mirth dancing in his eyes.

"Oh yes, twelve feet tall at least, horns," Anakin replied seriously, "Ahsoka jumped on top and shoved a grenade in its eye. It was very impressive."

"Well, I knew it worked on rancors, and that thing was close enough," the togruta casually stated while looking down and around the corridor they were now in. "We should head to the hangar and try and find a useable ship before this place gets blown to pieces. Artoo! Head over to us, it's to leave."

"Yes, you have a point," Kenobi affirmed, "hang on, how do you know grenades work on rancors?"

"I was on archive duty a while back and I decided to look up some old characters in the history sections. Revan was kinda awesome."

"Revan? Wasn't she the one who-," Obi-wan was cut off as a ray shield appeared around their small group, and he turned on the spot looking a tad miffed. "How did this happen again? We're smarter than this."

"Apparently not," Ahsoka looked at the energy shield with distaste. "And they'll have electrified the plasma below so that trick won't work again."

"I suggest patience," Anakin said calmly.

"Now there's a word I never expected to hear come out of your mouth," Obi-wan replied.

"We be patient and wait for Artoo to get here, whereupon he will turn the shield off," he said simply in return, his faith in the old droid complete.

"Fair enough I guess, but somehow I doubt it will be that simple. It just never is," Ahsoka added. "Then again," she amended as the astromech droid in question flew through a door nearby to hit a wall, spinning on his three wheels a little as if dizzy. "Nope, knew it wouldn't be that simple," she amended once again as three destroyer droids followed through the door, along with a significant number of other types of battle droid.

##########################################################################################

Ahsoka was somewhat confused as they were brought to the bridge of the ship in shackles. Were it her own ship, she would never have brought her enemies to the centre of command from where they could potentially cause a great deal of damage. Especially a force-user. Still, not like she was complaining. In-fact, she allowed herself to grin under her helmet as they once more faced General Grievous, and this time he didn't have a ray shield between them.

"Ah, general, we do seem to keep running into one another," Obi-wan said light-heartedly.

"General Kenobi," the cyborg spat in return, "it seems I have four more lightsabers to add to my collection." One of his guards handed him the weapons, and Ahsoka tried not to seethe as the bastard handled her lightsabers. There was a deep connection between a force-wielder and the weapons they built themselves, from crystals that resonated with them. The cyborg who used them as trophies or as weapons for himself made a mockery of bastardizing the individuality each one represented.

"Why not just fight us? It'll be like old times, we could have a rematch and you could mend your wounded pride that a padawan stood against you and lived and all that," Ahsoka said in a mocking tone.

"I think I would prefer to put you Republic dogs down," he sneered in return.

"Well, we can't have that," Obi-wan commented, and as one in a well-oiled team, he and Anakin turned and flexed their hands, drawing their lightsabers to them from Grievous, simultaneously igniting them and cutting their bonds. Holding out her hands, Anakin swiftly slashed her own, leaving Ahsoka free to pull her own weapons from Grievous' cloak while Obi-wan went to help the Chancellor.

As green blades snapped into existence, Ahsoka grinned at being able to face down Grievous again. This was going to be one to remember.

"Come on then, general to general," she stated, dashing forward as he ignited two of his own blades, not having time to snap into four arms.

Green clashed against blue, and they began a dance of the ages in an evenly matched fight, despite his strength and height advantages. Sweat beaded Ahsoka's brow as they fought, each keeping a single saber in defence and the other as flexible at all times, blow after blow raining down between them outside of forms or honour duelling. This was a fight, not a duel.

Sensing an opening more than seeing one, Ahsoka leapt up after batting one of his weapon down, pushing with the Force to send her leaping over his head. When he reached up to try and hit her as she knew he would, her green blade slashed and took his mechanical hand which dropped to the deck with a clang.

Landing and spinning to avoid an anticipated blow, she enjoyed the way he backed up a little warily.

"You lose, General Tano," he said, slashing his blade out to the side into the window. Ahsoka froze. With a smash, the weak point combined with the pressure of space made the glass shatter, and both she and Grievous, being closest, were sucked towards it in the sudden pressure difference.

While he glided through deliberately, Ahsoka scrabbled desperately for her belt, trying to find her piton to latch onto something. She despaired when she found it empty, remembering the elevator shaft earlier a moment too late, only to feel a jerk from her leg a second before she would have shot out into space. Looking down, she had never been more relieved to see Anakin holding her shin while his other hand had grabbed a console. Even if it did mean he was literally looking up her skirt, she didn't care; he _had_ just saved her life after all.

"Thanks," she said honestly, relief evident in her voice as the blast shields slammed over the hole and the pair of them fell back down to the deck with a thud.

"Couldn't let you die on me, could I Snips?" he replied with a smile, giving her a hand up from where she fell.

"Anakin," Obi-wan called, "can you fly this thing?"

"At the moment, I think ability to fly it is irrelevant," the Hero with No Fear stated, looking dubiously around at all the ruined equipment and half functioning computer consoles as the planet below began to get closer. Still, the man dutifully sat down in a pilot's chair with a still functioning computer. "Buckle up," he said calmly while flicking a few switches. Ahsoka did as he commanded by another mercifully functioning machine and applied her own knowledge in tandem. "Open all flaps."

"There should be emergency boosters on the back on this class of ship, they used them earli-," Ahsoka's suggestion stopped dead at a huge jolt which accompanied the rear half of the ship detaching. "Never mind."

"Can you land the ship?" Obi-wan asked, his tension evident in his stance if not his voice.

"Half a ship," Ahsoka corrected automatically.

"I think this is looking more like a crash than a landing right now," Anakin replied as the view beyond them turned orange, the atmosphere around them super-heating as they entered it.

"Close all the blast doors, the heat will move through the ship up to us otherwise," Ahsoka added while reaching under her station for wires and seemingly dissecting the machine to get at the transmitter components. It took a few moments for her to find the right cable and hot-wire it to her vambrace which had the Republic frequencies she needed. "This is Senior General Ahsoka Tano calling Coruscant; we're coming in for a crash landing in a, well, _half_ a Providence Class Dreadnought. The Supreme Chancellor is aboard."

"Roger that," replied the voice of a clone, scratchy with interference, "fire crews are en-route to you. Make for the landing strip on a bearing fifteen degrees from your current position."

"You get that Anakin?" she inquired as the line closed.

"Yep, hang onto something," the man said as he twisted a joystick to the right and the shuddering of the ship increased to even greater measures.

"Five hundred metres from runway and closing," Ahsoka stated, reading the characters scrolling swiftly on her screen, "three hundred….two….put her down." A second of nothing accompanied her command before a huge jolt rocked the ship as they impacted upon the ground. The noise was incredible, a choir of screams of the protesting metal before they finally came to a halt.

Ahsoka leaned her head back against the headrest of her seat as they finally stopped, letting out a breath she hadn't realised she'd been holding.

"Textbook landing, Anakin," Obi-wan said, relief colouring his voice.

"This," Ahsoka paused to take a breath, "this would be the moment when the rancor turns up."

A chorus of nervous laughter greeted her joke as the fire crews swept in above them.

 **A/N: You might have noticed a slight plug to one of my other stories 'The Lady Revan' in there, which should also be receiving an update in the next few days. Hopefully. Anyhow, until the next time.**


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N: I really need to re-watch the rest of RotS before writing this, so sorry if this is a wee bit late, on top of that, it's been a really difficult chapter to write.**

 **And wow, I typed those words above something like two weeks ago. Sorry, time has kinda flown by, and I've been dealing with a lot of work. Anyhow, I should keep you from it no longer.**

 **Disclaimer: I OWN NOTHING, property of respective owners etc.**

Chapter 6

"You not coming?" questioned Anakin as he stood by the entrance of the transport, a crowd of senators, reporters and various others awaiting them across the way.

"Oh no, I'm not brave enough for politics, and I have to inform the council of what happened," Obi-wan stated.

"And I have to go to my commanders to debrief them," Ahsoka quickly added.

"You're going to hang me out to dry? Traitors, the both of you," he mock frowned.

"Anakin, you're the one who defeated Count Dooku, and helped rescue the Chancellor with me unconscious on your back. You're the hero, this is your day with the politicians," Obi-wan continued.

"Besides," Ahsoka added with a smirk, "someone has to be the poster boy."

"Fine," the Jedi relented, "but you both owe me, and not just for saving your skins for the tenth time."

"Ninth time….that business on Cato Neimodia doesn't… doesn't count," Obi-wan protested.

"You still owe him ten? Me and Skyguy are almost even," Ahsoka commented.

"Almost, Snips." She nodded her head at him. Outside of joking, she would never stop owing him. Not really.

#####################################################################################

"Well, I hadn't expected our first proper meeting to be after our first battle rather than before, but such is life," Ahsoka surveyed the four men before her. "Commander Zain, Captain Deviss, I would like to introduce you to Captain Hail," the ARC Captain in his blue-and-white armour nodded respectfully to his new fellows, "and Admiral Veers," the relatively young, sober man in grey uniform again nodded at his fellow men. "Both of whom will be joining us for the foreseeable future as our forces have expanded. Now that we know who we all are, are there any outstanding issues to bring forward after the battle?"

"We experienced minimal losses, general. A few repairs to the Venators to make, and a few ships and their pilots lost, but overall we fared well," Veers rattled off professionally. The young man seemed eager to impress, and she was aware this was his first posting as Admiral.

"All the men are ready to deploy as needed, general," Hail added.

"There's only one outstanding issue," Zain stated, and Ahsoka quirked her head in curiosity. "Two squadrons are claiming your round of drinks; one V-Wing group, and some of the bombers who claim a cruiser should count as more than one kill." Ahsoka chuckled at the news, remembering her offer as she had left the Tempest.

"Well, I'll have to buy two rounds then," she replied with a smile.

#####################################################################################

Ahsoka was in her room on the Tempest, practicing katas with her lightsabers, when her communicator beeped with a holo-transmission. Curious as to whether it could be new orders, she sent the link to her holoprojector. It was with surprise that she saw the image of Padme grow on screen rather than the Chancellor or the like.

"Hello Padme, to what do I owe the honour?" she started, slipping her lightsabers back onto her belt.

"Well, since you're still on planet for the moment…I was wondering if you'd take me up on my offer of dinner. To meet my husband," the woman tentatively stated. Ahsoka blinked at the request, remembering the promise she had made. She did want to know who it was Padme had been keeping as a secret lover, though she doubted it would be anyone she knew. She just had a niggling feeling this was important.

"Of course, if you feel ready. I know you've kept this a secret for a reason, Padme," she reassured.

"I'm sure, and I've talked it over with him as well. He thinks you should know as well," that confused Ahsoka for the moment, did that mean she knew him already? "Is seven alright for you?"

"Sure, it's not like I've got much of a social life," Ahsoka's lips quirked at her own joke, though Padme looked slightly disapproving at the dig at herself.

"I'll see you then," as the communication line cut, Ahsoka realised something with a pang.

"Oh stang, what am I gonna wear?"

#####################################################################################

Somewhat nervously, Ahsoka adjusted her clothing as she stepped into the elevator. The dress uniform was something she had received a while ago and never worn, in favour of her armour.

It was fairly drab in its grey-ness, but looked the right kind of smart. Composed of a long-sleeved tunic and thin trousers, the only splashes of colour were her black boots and the red and blue insignia on the left of her chest, denoting her rank. The awkward thing was, it was one of the only sets of clothing she owned, the others being her armour and two identical red dresses she once wore as a Jedi. Those were collecting dust in a bottom drawer of her bunk, and she had no wish to pull back the memories they presented.

Still, she mused as the elevator moved upwards with barely a shift to its single passenger, the one advantage Jedi had, was that they had their one robe or the like to wear at any occasion, and never had to worry about such things.

' _Of course_ ,' she thought, ' _I did get a few odd looks for my original outfit with that tube top. And still do get a few at my midriff in my armour. Wonder what the public at large would think of the clothing on Shili?_ ' Her species, as a whole, preferred to wear as little as possible, especially the hunters, so as to be closer to the wilds of their home planet. ' _I will never understand how Shaak Ti could ever wear those heavy robes,_ ' her face was marred by a grimace as she remembered that the woman was dead now, killed by Grievous right in front of her.

Such morbid thoughts were pushed from her mind as the doors to the lift opened to reveal a familiar golden visage.

"Mistress Ahsoka! So good to see you again, and so soon," Threepio babbled, "please follow me, they await you in the sitting area." He made a gesturing motion, to which Ahsoka dutifully followed.

As she approached the door, she almost stopped though, as an uneasiness she'd felt but hadn't acknowledged since she left the elevator mounted. By the time they had reached the entrance to the sitting room, it was pressing in on her temples. And yet she could sense nothing from the apartment beyond, almost as if it were…shrouded…

It couldn't be, could it? It would explain why the child was force sensitive, and why the marriage was secret. But still, a _Jedi_ with a wife and a child on the way. He'd be expelled from the Order immediately should they ever find out.

Taking a deep breath, she stepped through the doorway after an expectant C-3PO. It was like moving through mist, and suddenly her feelings were clear of it. Presences of life, clear as day, even if Padme wasn't standing ready to welcome her, she could have felt her rather than seen her.

But it was the other that made her freeze, the deep echo of the familiar.

"Ahsoka, glad you could make it," Padme greeted as the man sitting on the sofa with his back to her rose, his black clothing all too familiar. "I'd like to introduce my husband…"

"Heya Snips," Anakin said in greeting, giving that slight grin of his.

And around Ahsoka, her world shattered into pieces.

 _Anakin_.

Padme's husband was Anakin.

She stood there gaping, her mouth hanging open like a fish as she stared at the pair, her brain simply not computing, unable to understand the situation and reconcile it with her own thoughts.

"I think we might have broken her, Padme," Anakin quipped, at which Ahsoka's jaw snapped shut and she ground her teeth around.

"Sorry…just a bit of a big shock," she said almost automatically, not really thinking about the words. Anakin. And Padme. Together.

It was still trying to sink in.

"Well, surprise, I guess," Padme commented, and Ahsoka forced herself to smile at the joke.

But it didn't reach her eyes.

#####################################################################################

And so here she sat on the roof of the barracks, still in her dress uniform, staring up into the night where stars would be visible were it not for the lights of Coruscant. **A/N: Remember this is where we started two chapters ago?**

Her face almost felt sore from where she had plastered a smile on it all night, and her head hurt from all that had happened. Of course she had pretended to be happy, she had laughed and congratulated the pair, and repeated her promise of helping with the child.

The child of her best friend and her….

Oh, Anakin.

That was the problem, or rather he was.

She reclined backwards, allowing her head to press into the metal roof. She had tried to reconcile her feelings, of course she had, she had been a Jedi. She had rationalised it all away as being hero-worship at first, then just a bond between master and padawan, and then just friends. Except they were more than friends, they had saved each other's lives so many times, gone back for the other in situations that were practically suicide.

It had all had an effect on her. It had taken her a long time before she was able to face the feeling developing, and of course she found a dozen things to blame it on; the stress of war, the strange-ness of being padawan to the Hero-With-No-Fear or the Chosen One, teenage hormones, or a combination of them all…

But it still didn't change that she had felt that way. It was after Zygerria that she had sat down and thought it all out, admitted that it existed.

And that there was nothing she could do.

She had been a _Jedi_ ; they weren't supposed to have feelings. Yoda always said love was dangerous; a path to the dark side. And of course, she was just a teenager, and he was already a man. And there was never any indication he reciprocated her feelings.

So she had squashed them down, ignored them, because nothing could ever come of it. Love was forbidden to them, and she didn't think he would ever feel the same way. She just ignored the fluttering in her chest. And still, after all, she was still close to him. She could be his friend, and she still knew him best out of anyone, even Obi-wan.

Or so she had thought.

She never would have thought he would have a wife, only now she felt blind that she hadn't seen it before. He was always close to the Senator, she had just never seen how close. Or perhaps hadn't wanted to see.

It hurt.

That he was capable of love, that he was happy with breaking every damn rule the Jedi had to be with someone, that he was married and having a child with them.

And it wasn't her.

That hurt, far, far more than just never being able to be with him, but that he had chosen someone _else_ over _her_.

' _They were married before you even met_ ,' whispered some part of her still rational mind, but it didn't change her feelings.

"So what now?" she whispered, looking imploring to the sky for answers. Everything had changed, and yet nothing had. She was to go about her life as if everything was still the same as it was yesterday. There was nothing she could do except…

She could be there. For them.

Because she loved them still, Padme was practically a sister to her after all, and she could never abandon Anakin. Especially not now in such a difficult time when they needed help. She could hardly abandon them, the two people who actually meant something to her.

With a sigh, she pulled herself up to her feet, looking around at the city of Coruscant.

She could never be his lover, that was for certain. But she could still be there for him. It was better than cutting off everything with him anyway, which was the only other option anyway.

And so Ahsoka steeled her heart. 'Never let it be said that I'm a coward,' she thought to herself.

And so a different woman-for she was definitely a woman now, not just a teen anymore-stepped off the roof than the one who had climbed up.

#####################################################################################

"Get a battalion around the side, going around the ridge and come up behind them," Ahsoka ordered as she manipulated a map on a holo-table.

"We can keep a steady bombardment with our artillery from up here, that should keep them too distracted to notice them," Admiral Veers commented, pointing at their AT-TE's on a cliff ledge.

"You and your penchant for heavy weapons," she said with a smirk, "make it happen."

#####################################################################################

"There we go, just let it out," Ahsoka said calmingly as she held the Senator's long hair, while the brunette woman released another batch of vomit into the toilet, "Threepio will be back soon with the medicine, you just need to hang on for me."

#####################################################################################

"Damn it! Circle _the_ _Revenant_ round the side, box them in. I am not losing Grievous again!" Ahsoka thundered as she stood on the bridge, looking out the window at the space battle ensuing beyond.

"We're taking heavy fire, general," stated a clone in a captain's uniform, "port side weapons are nearly all non-functional."

"Then swing us around and use the starboard guns. Get some fighters protecting our damaged side as well," she replied quickly. "What the- oh stang it!" The appearance of four more Separatist cruisers exiting Hyperspace changed the odds even further against their favour.

"General-."

"Sound the retreat," she interrupted forlornly, hanging her head a bit.

#####################################################################################

"You and your cravings, you have no idea how difficult it is to ship these in from Kashyyyk," Ahsoka said drily while hefting a wooden crate full of purple fruits, "barely any traders are braving the ongoing war right now."

"Don't care right now, gimme," the unusually unrestrained Senator stated, grabbing at one of the swelled fruits and taking a huge bite. She practically moaned into the fruit as the juice dribbled a bit down her chin. "So good…" she mumbled.

"Yeah, well, at least your kid has taste I guess. They are pretty good," Ahsoka relented, rolling a fruit of her own between her fingers.

"Mine," stated Padme, slapping the togruta's hand to make her drop the fruit. The completely serious look on the woman's face led to Ahsoka cracking up with laughter.

#####################################################################################

"I say if we let them get by Sullust, they'll keep on pushing to more valuable and at-risk worlds, such as Naboo," Ahsoka said clearly, manipulating the hologram of the galaxy map in front of her. "We currently hold Malastare, so I say we use that as a staging point and drive them back, hard."

"It's Outer Rim territory, we should be concentrating more on the Kastolar sector in the Mid Rim," Fisto argued from his seat across the room.

"They need to hold Kashyyyk to make headway in that area, and last I checked the Wookies were holding strong. Additionally, this will divert their attention away from that area and spread their forces more thinly," she said in return.

"And our own soldiers," Fisto added.

"No, Ahso-General Tano is correct," the holographic image of Luminara Unduli stated, "that section of the Hydian way has far too little defence, and they could sweep through all too easily. I move in agreement."

This of course sparked more argument with the other seventeen senior generals present, but Ahsoka inwardly smirked at the triumph what the Miralian had said was.

#####################################################################################

"You're awfully tense, is everything alright?" Ahsoka inquired, looking worriedly at the woman who was currently rubbing her heavily swelled stomach.

"Yes, no….I don't know," the woman turned her soulful eyes on the togruta, "Ahsoka, have you ever had a vision? Through the Force?"

"Y-yes, once," she replied confusedly at the seemingly random topic, "when we went to Alderaan, I saw Sing trying to kill you. I don't normally have them."

"Why do you think you did then?" she asked, and Ahsoka paused to consider the question.

"Probably because I'm close to you, I feel for you emotionally and that connects into what my subconscious wants to see? I don't know, the Jedi have spent centuries trying to understand them, I don't see the point."

"Why not?"

"Because we're given them for a reason; to either warn us of something so we can do something to prepare for it, or to prevent it, or so on and so forth. The future's not fixed, and it can be changed. Some people's visions never actually happen," she frowned as her thoughts spiralled off into the various theories on prophecy and self-fulfilment. "Anyway, why do you ask?" Padme remained silent for a long moment, apprehension clear in her face.

"Anakin. He had a vision, about me. About me dying," she said quietly. Her words made Ahsoka freeze.

"When?"

"Every night while he was here."

"So he's had it multiple times, the same one?" she said anxiously, remembering the way her own had plagued her sleep. From such a powerful Force wielder, and someone who rarely-if ever-received such visions, this was not something to be ignored.

"I don't know if it was the same…he won't tell me much about it, but I know it's really worrying him," Padme responded, concern evident in her own eyes as well.

"I need to talk to him," Ahsoka stated firmly.

#####################################################################################

"Artoo," Ahsoka said in relief as an image of the faithful droid flickered to life. Using old back-channels they'd developed for when they were separated on the battlefield was no easy thing to do across the galaxy, but she had learnt her mechanical skills from the best. The droid himself burbled happily at seeing her, his dome spinning. "Good to see you too, buddy. But I haven't time to chat, I need you to find Anakin and get him somewhere secure so we can talk. Re-open the line once you have him, okay?"

The astromech beeped an affirmative before the holographic image disappeared.

Ahsoka spent the next minute or so pacing distractedly across her room on the _Tempest_ , the small space only allowing for a few steps per pass. She was abruptly torn from her thoughts when the holoprojector shimmered back to life with an image of the Hero-with-No-Fear.

"Ahsoka, what's the emergency? Is Padme okay?" the panic in his voice was obvious, and Ahsoka held out two hands to calm him.

"Whoa Anakin, she's fine, don't worry. I saw her about an hour ago," she replied.

"Thank the Force, you had me worried there, Ahsoka," he said, a hand through his ruffled hair, that she noted he'd grown out even longer than when she last saw him. "What's the emergency call for then?"

"Padme told me about your vision," she stated.

"Oh," Anakin replied with a grimace, "I'm not going to let it happen."

"I'm not saying you are, but I need to know. What happens? What details are there?" she questioned insistently.

"Not many…" he said slowly, "I just see her face, screaming and I can feel her pain, it's…."

"No location, no sign of her body to see if this is before or after her pregnancy?"

"No."

"Wait, do you actually see her dying?"

"No…." he relented.

"Then how do you know it's that? Screaming is good, _screaming_ means she's alive to do it. It could be anything if that's all we know, in fact it's probable that you might have seen her in labour, that's going to be a pretty important time."

"You don't understand; I can feel her. I can feel her die, I just know it. I can't let this happen again like my mother," he insisted, his expression determined.

"Anakin, calm down, we need to think about this logically and carefully."

"No, I am _not_ losing her, I won't," his voice was tinged a little by anger and bitterness. "I'll be back on Coruscant in two days, I'll keep her safe. ' _Relieving you of duty_ ,' Ahsoka's mind finished.

"Anakin, we have to careful how we step, this kind of thing can be like a-," she faltered as his visage disappeared from the projector, the connection cut on his end. "Self-fulfilling prophecy," she finished quietly, massaging her forehead with a sigh.

Love him, she may, but Force knew that man could be so difficult.

#####################################################################################

"The rebels in our cells finally gave up their intel," Zain commented from behind Ahsoka as she stared out into the depths of space from the bridge window of the Tempest. "Apparently because we got them all, their movement has been wiped out. The Kuat shipyards can resume production safely now."

"Good to hear, we can't afford to lose their input to the war effort, though it seems the Separatists are nearly done with," Ahsoka replied without turning.

"Indeed, I hear that General Kenobi is close to cornering Grievous," Veers commented.

"He's the key to all of this, without him the Confederacy doesn't have enough decent tactical commanders to hold it all together. They'll splinter off, and without a chain of command, will be easy enough to mop up," Zain added.

"Don't talk about him as if he's already dead. That kriffing bastard is a tricky one, always manages to escape," Ahsoka stated, bitterness colouring her tone.

"Well, he has to get lucky every time. We only have to get lucky once," Zain replied. Ahsoka gave a snort of amusement, and turned around to make a quip when the sound for an incoming transmission on the holoprojector sounded.

"It's encrypted, verified as the Supreme Chancellor's office, Ma'am," said one of her captains as she approached the machine.

"Good, new orders at last," she pressed a button to open communications, and frowned when a dark cloaked figure appeared.

" _Execute Order 66_."

 **A/N: And there's a lovely cliffy for you all to hate me over, if you didn't already hate me for the rest of this chapter's content or the long wait that is. I am sorry about the wait, but with work and other things like writer's block, well…yeah. And I rewrote this quite a few times, and I'm** _ **still**_ **not happy with how it came out, but I felt I could keep it from you no longer. Really hard chapter to write.**

 **Also, for those who've recently discovered this story and reviewed (despite my leave of absence) I'd like to say thank-you again, though I know I've already replied to most of you, they really do mean a lot to read and know my pitiful attempts at writing are appreciated. But I digress. See you next time, folks.**


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N: Okay, so I got halfway through this chapter before finally going back and watching RotS properly, all the way through. And I kinda realised I've messed a few things up;**

 **Firstly; Anakin sees Padme dying in childbirth….ballsed that up a little, but not too badly I think.**

 **Secondly; each clone commander receives a personal message from the chancellor, not a general repeat of the same one as I thought it was, which is probably why a bunch of reviewers asked whether it was being sent to Ahsoka or her clones. For the sake of the story, I'm saying that Order Sixty Six was recorded once and broadcast to all Republic personnel.**

 **Thirdly...the way Padme responds to Anakin's fall was completely different to how I remembered, so…be prepared for a bit of AU, since that bit was already written and decided.**

 **There's also a few other details, such as how short a space of time the film seems to take up, but for the most part, I think I can keep what I've got.**

 **So anyway, egg on face, foot in mouth, and I'm sorry for my mistakes.**

 **Disclaimer: I OWN NOTHING, property of respective owners etc.**

Chapter 7

" _It's encrypted, verified as the Supreme Chancellor's office, Ma'am," said one of her captains as she approached the machine._

" _Good, new orders at last," she pressed a button to open communications, and frowned when a dark cloaked figure appeared._

" _Execute Order 66."_

"What?" muttered Ahsoka as the holographic figure disappeared, "what the hell does that mean?" She pressed a few buttons, trying to re-open the communication line, but it had been cut from the other end. Her head whipped up when her senses edged at her brain telling her of danger, and she heard a few knocks as several troopers around her un-holstered their weapons. She backed away from the holoprojector as guns began to be trained squarely on her.

"Stand down!" barked the blessed voice of Zain, and heads swivelled in the man's direction.

"But sir-," one of the bridge officers began, but the commander swiftly cut him off.

"That's an _order_. There are no Jedi aboard this ship," Zain commanded. Slowly, after a few seconds, the men holstered their weapons again, and Ahsoka felt a little less pressure at her temples. But this still needed an explanation.

"Zain, explain. Now," Ahsoka stated, still tense from the sight of her own men pointing weapons at her and prepared for that to happen again. What the kriffing hell was going on?

"There's a series of executive orders we're taught on Kamino, general," Zain said slowly, "to be given by the supreme chancellor in time of emergency. Order 66… it means the Jedi have revolted and turned against the Republic, and to shoot on sight."

"The Jedi?" Ahsoka spurted in surprise, her blue eyes wide as her mind tried to compute the revelation. She had her reasons to dislike the Jedi, but betraying the Republic? Was it really possible? And what would this mean? The Republic's armies were led by Jedi commanders, there were everywhere in its infrastructure, if she allowed herself to even believe this, then the effects…

They would be catastrophic.

And Coruscant, that would be the eye of the storm. There the Temple lied, and the greatest concentration of Force-wielders in the galaxy.

' _No, no, this can't be_ ,' her mind argued, ' _Anakin, and Obi-wan, they couldn't, wouldn't do this._ ' She began to pace by the projector without even realising it, trying to piece her jumbled thoughts together. ' _But…_ ' the more cynical part of her brain whispered, ' _they are not typical Jedi, Anakin especially; he has a wife for Force's sake. And what Tarkin said about Tann…_ ' Her memories flashed backwards to the court room:

" _Sev'rance Tann was believed dead since earlier in the war when she stole plans for a Republic weapon, in the form of a powerful tank named the Decimator."_

" _You think the Jedi were after the weapon plans?" Ahsoka questioned with a frown. What would the Jedi want with a battle-tank?_

" _I can see no other logical reason," he stated._

And so many other smaller things, her brain started throwing up instances where her orders from the Jedi didn't make sense, or they did something she felt was wrong.

She knew full well the Jedi Council was not infallible, not to mention the Order as a whole. But treason? Sedition?

The question in itself was simple, she supposed; did she, or did she not believe the Jedi were capable of doing something like this?

' _Yes_ ,' was the simple answer her subconscious offered, and with that her decisions were set in stone.

"You," she stated, pointing at a navigation officer, "how quickly can we get to Coruscant?"

"Er, about forty-five minutes through hyperspace, ma'am," he replied after a moment.

"Plot the course, we make the jump in ten minutes," she turned to address everyone else on the bridge, "if the Jedi have turned, Coruscant is under major threat and could easily have become a battlefield. They're going to need reinforcements. Tell the men to get suited and booted, this is not going to be easy." Of course, she left silently unsaid that she needed to be on Coruscant for other reasons. _Anakin_ , and Padme. She had to know if they were alright, if Anakin…

She couldn't let that possibility enter her thoughts, she couldn't even believe for a second there was a possibility he was dead, or that he would ever betray the Republic.

She drove such thoughts from her head, trying to focus on the task at hand, but found it difficult. Grimacing, she pressed a hand to her temple. Now she could concentrate, her head was aching. When she tried to reach out with the Force, she staggered under the weight of those crying out into the ether.

"General, are you alright?" came the concerned voice of her faithful commander from behind, and she looked round at his familiar visage.

"I…I need to lie down…for a moment," she stammered out, trying not to wince at the clamouring of voices in her head now that the floodgates were opened. Carefully, she composed herself as best she could and moved towards her room.

#####################################################################################

"General?" on about the fourth time the word had been said, Ahsoka shook herself from her attempt at a meditative state on the floor of her cabin.

"Yes, sorry," she replied, bringing a hand up to her aching head.

"We're coming out of the pipe in five," Zain stated, "are you alright, general?" he added in a concerned tone.

"Not really," she sighed, "I have…a strong connection to the living force, but I always hated meditation, I never learned to control it or anything like that. I can't shut it out, and as we get closer to Coruscant it's getting stronger."

"What is?" Zain inquired.

"The screaming," she replied simply, "I'm not sure how much use I'm going to be in any fight; I can barely think straight."

#####################################################################################

"Gentlemen," Ahsoka began as she walked onto the bridge, the view of Coruscant looming up beyond the window at the far end, "we are perhaps in the Republic's darkest hour, and we are to be counted upon to serve at our best. Your orders are as follows; Commander Zain, take half of our forces and proceed to the Senate, where you will fortify and entrench your position. You take it, and you hold it, we need a secure base of operations. Captain Hail, you are to take the other half of our ground troops and go to the Jedi Temple. Surround the building, and allow no-one past. As far as the Jedi are concerned, any within are now prisoners of war to be interrogated over this rebellion at a later date. If any try to leave…well, you know what to do, but do not march inside, I would prefer the younglings to not be casualties of their elders' idiocy. Admiral Veers, once we have landed and disembarked, you will take our ships and any others you can round up into the space around Coruscant, I want you to set up a blockade around the planet with anything we've got. Put the AT-TE's on the hull if you need extra firepower, but once you are up there, do not let a single non-military ship leave the planet. Captain Deviss, you and I will be taking a detachment of thirty men to the 500 Republica, in-case that is where the chancellor has retreated-as I doubt he will have stayed at the Senate building. If he is there, we will fortify the top floor, blow out the elevator and radio to the Senate for reinforcements. If not, we sweep down the building and get the various Senators who live there _out_ , and to the Senate where we can best protect them," Ahsoka had to admit, she had personal reasons affecting her orders, but Force damn it, she needed to know if Padme and Anakin were alright.

#####################################################################################

"Padme?" she called out as the lift doors closed behind her, a few of her men proceeding to lower floors and more senators. She flinched when an anxious looking Captain Typho rolled out into the corridor ahead of her, blaster upraised, only to lower is slightly when he saw her.

"General Tano," he acknowledged, "what the hell is going on?"

"The Jedi have rebelled, we're evacuating all Senators from the building to the Senate where we're setting up a fortified position," Ahsoka answered briskly.

"The senator hasn't been out in public since it became obvious that…" 'S _he was pregnant_ ,' Ahsoka finished in her head.

"I know, but right now it isn't safe. I've issued orders for this section of Coruscant to be placed under martial law, until we find the Chancellor," she replied. "Now where is she?"

Typho simply gestured behind himself, and Ahsoka tried to keep from running as she entered the main area of the apartment. Swivelling her head, she reached out amongst the clamouring Force to try and sense her presence. As soon as her location registered, she was running to the balcony area, where the woman stood, staring over at the Jedi Temple in the far distance. Smoke rising from the building.

It was almost haunting to look at; the woman had lost none of her grace or beauty as her stomach began to swell, but the look of longing on her face made her look older than the young woman was.

"Padme?" she said haltingly, almost flinching as the woman's head whipped around immediately.

"Ahsoka!" she exclaimed, practically throwing herself into a hug with the togruta, "I was so worried, there are rumours that the Jedi…"

"They're true," Ahsoka said quietly, "orders came from the Supreme Chancellor himself; they've betrayed the Republic."

"But Anakin…" the woman practically sobbed out.

"I doubt Anakin had anything to do with it, he trusts the council almost as little as I do, and he was the Chancellor's representative. If anything, it's likely he unearthed it in the first place, and warned the Chancellor," Ahsoka said reassuringly, rubbing a hand into the shorter woman's back. "Trust in him, Padme. He's Anakin kriffing Skywalker. I've seen armies turn, and run away as he approached. He's strong, and he's a good man, and he will come back to us."

"Thank-you," whispered the Senator after a few moments, "I think I needed to hear that."

"Think nothing of it," Ahsoka replied, "but right now, I need you to be strong, he needs you to be strong. We're bringing all the Senators we can find to the Senate, where we can fortify the position, and probably hold an emergency meeting or two. Can you do that? For me? I just need you to be strong for a little while."

"Yes, yes of course," she stepped back and smoothed out her dress, "I do have a duty to the Republic, after all."

"Now there's the Padme I know," Ahsoka said, with a hint of a smile.

#####################################################################################

"Supreme Chancellor, it's good to see you're safe," Ahsoka said as she walked into the man's office. The Chancellor himself was standing by what had been a wide window overlooking the city, but the glass had been blown out. His black cloak obscured his features, but Ahsoka still felt a tingling of her senses to say something was off.

"General Tano," Palpatine eventually acknowledged, "you continue to surprise me, I will tell you that much. But I must ask of you a question at this point in time." He finally turned around, and Ahsoka let out a gasp at his appearance. His skin was pale and clammy, with huge wrinkles and deformities, his hair gone and his skull looking like it moulded over his brain. But his eyes were the greatest reveal; a burning, hateful yellow only ever equated to one thing. A Sith. "I must ask you; where do your loyalties lie?"

Ahsoka swallowed wetly, still trying to comprehend the situation let alone the question. She paused for the longest time, before looking straight into the man's eyes.

"You know where my loyalties lie, sir," she answered.

"I believe I do indeed," he replied. "You have a belief in order that is commendable, and some devotion to the Republic, but your true loyalty rests with young Skywalker, does it not?" Ahsoka stayed very still as she considered how to respond, after all he had hit the nail on the head as it were. The wrong answer here could perhaps lead to her joining the Jedi she knew to have been killed in the Temple. And she couldn't allow that, she had to return to Padme. And to Anakin, they needed her right now.

"I would follow him to the end of the Universe, sir," she answered honestly, gambling on her hunch being right. He and the Chancellor had always been close; it wasn't too great a leap of logic.

"As he would for you, I daresay," the man stated. "I suppose it is good that you have both remained loyal to the Republic in its time of need." Ahsoka allowed herself to relax slightly at that, well, as much as she could in the presence of a Sith. That, she was still struggling to come to terms with. "Come," he ordered, waving her towards a door which he walked through. She found herself staring at the large podium device that rose through the Senate that the Chancellor stood upon. The Chancellor himself moved over to talk with Mas Amedda, who stood by the device. Feeling clearly dismissed, Ahsoka retreated to the corner on the other side of the room, where she could try and consolidate her thoughts.

Palpatine was a Sith, there was no doubt. Even though he was still masking his presence, Ahsoka could now feel the slight creeping of the dark side from him, like hairline fractures rending the air.

And Ahsoka was not sure how to feel about that.

In the past, as a Jedi, she would have been appalled, horrified, and would have attempted to kill any Sith on sight.

More recently though, as a soldier, Sith acolytes, Dark Jedi…they were just the enemy because they were on the other side, she harboured no actual hate towards them, except for the actions of some. Hell, she would have to admit, she was definitely grey in how she used the Force, her emotions, and even her anger had fuelled her these last few months as she let go of the Jedi tenets.

But she'd never pursued power or cruelty like a Sith…

No, no, no. She had to focus. Anakin. Padme. They were what mattered, everything else would fall into place, they'd work it out together in their little dysfunctional family.

Wait, when did she start thinking of them all as a family?

She was suddenly distracted from all those musings as her communicator beeped with a holo-transmission, and she drew the small receiver disc from her pocket to view the person.

"Padme!" she whispered in surprise at seeing the Senator's image, but still wary of the fact she was not the only occupant of the room.

"Ahsoka, I would have contacted you earlier but we're being herded upstairs for an emergency session. Anakin is alive! He left an hour ago on a mission for the Chancellor, to take out the Separatist leaders," the woman babbled quickly.

"I know, the Chancellor just told me he was alive," Ahsoka replied, "I'm with him now." Ahsoka looked up for a moment as Tarkin walked into the room. "Look, I'm sorry, I've got to go, I'll come round later." She abruptly switched the communicator off as the man approached her.

"General Tano, how good to see you again," he said calmly.

"And you as well, Admiral-sorry- _Moff_ Tarkin, I should say," she stated in return, trying not to let her stress show.

"It is time to begin," announced the Chancellor from across the room, and Ahsoka couldn't help but shiver at the ominous words.

#####################################################################################

Ahsoka was struggled to keep her composure in the capsule, with her standing to Palpatine's right, while Tarkin stood on his left-the man's normal two aides surprisingly absent in favour of the military commanders.

"And the Jedi rebellion has been foiled," Palpatine continued, "the remaining Jedi will be hunted down and defeated!" His statement drew applause from the massive chamber, incensed from his speech over their betrayal. "The attempt on my life has left me scarred and deformed. But I assure you, my resolve has never been stronger!" He waited for cheering to die down again before continuing. "In order to ensure the security and continuing stability, the Republic will be reorganised into the first Galactic Empire! For safe and secure society!" He gestured upwards with his hands to the ensuing thunderous applause.

Ahsoka could only wonder as to exactly how oblivious these Senators applauding their own funerals were.

#####################################################################################

"Padme!" Ahsoka called out as the woman strode up the boarding ramp to her sleek, silver ship. "Where are you going?"

"See, I'll be perfectly safe with General Tano," Padme said aside to her captain of security. "This is something I must do. Come on, Threepio, Ahsoka."

The young general hurried after her as the boarding ramp began to close, leaving Typho on the landing pad.

"Padme? What's going on?" Ahsoka questioned anxiously as the brunette determinedly walked through the ship.

"Obi-wan, he came to my apartment," she replied.

"What? How did he even…" the man was supposedly dead, and even then, getting past the blockade on Coruscant was no small feat.

"He said things…about Anakin," as the woman slumped into the pilot's seat she looked almost ready to cry. "He said he'd turned to the dark, that he'd killed younglings and helped Palpatine create this…this abomination of what the Republic once was."

"Padme…" Ahsoka tried to order her thoughts so she could make a response, "the Jedi are alike with the Sith in that both deal in absolutes, black and white. They refuse to acknowledge that the world is in just differing shades of grey. What you and I both know is that Anakin is a good man, he's the man you married." Padme visibly relaxed a little but still seemed tense. "And what the Chancellor is doing is what really needed to be done; the senate has long been inefficient, and corrupt, we haven't been a proper democracy in centuries anyway. What he's doing is creating order."

"It's _wrong_ , Ahsoka, how can you not see that?" the panicked look was back as the woman's hands danced over the controls of her ship, and Ahsoka rocked slightly before steadying herself as the craft took off. "I need to see him, I _need_ answers."

"What you need is to calm down; it isn't good for you or the baby," Ahsoka calmly replied, trying to soothe the woman.

"You can't stop me, Ahsoka, and don't patronise me," the woman's face was hard, and steely eyed.

"I'm not patronising you, Padme, you're my sister, and I care for you," the words were tumbling out without the togruta really thinking them. She sighed, slipping into the co-pilot's seat. "I guess if I can't persuade you from this, I'm going to have to go with you. Force knows someone needs to keep you two out of trouble. Kriffing Skywalkers."

"You can't say that, you know, you're one too. You're my sister too, you know," a smile ghosted across the brunette's face as she looked over, and Ahsoka couldn't help but return it.

"Thanks…that means a lot," she returned, before straightening up to look out the window as they soared upwards, "so where are we going?"

"Mustafar."

 **A/N: So this was slightly rushed as I needed to get this over and done with, and there may be a few spelling mistakes as I've only briefly glanced over it unlike usual. But anyway, please review and let me know what you think, and until the next time.**


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